Undefeated cruiserweight Jake Paul was scheduled to fight Hasim Rahman Jr. this saturday night (August 6) at Madison Square Garden in New York City, part of a Showtime boxing pay-per-view (PPV) card that also featured featherweight Amanda Serrano vs. Brenda Carabajal.
The entire event has since been cancelled.
Paul claims that Rahman Jr. he failed to meet contract stipulations regarding his weight, forcing promoter Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) to amend his existing deal. Then came another round of weekly weigh-ins and a lack of progress that ended the “Gold Blooded” fight.
In subsequent posts on Twitter, Rahman Jr. admits that he failed to make his mark, but also believes that the unrealistic parameters set by Paul and Co. they were designed to weaken the longtime heavyweight and give “The Problem Child” a marked advantage on fight night.
“I signed the contract to fight at 200 pounds in the three and a half weeks I had to do it, but I couldn’t do it, my body just wouldn’t let me do it, wouldn’t let me do- ho. down to 200 pounds,” Rahman Jr. said. in social networks. “But at what point in boxing do you see them canceling fights a whole week in advance? I didn’t even get my last week to go as low as I could. I said to this man, are there penalties? Put the bag away. I’ll fight you for at least $5,000. That’s what it means to me and how much faith I have in knocking him out.”
Rahman Jr. he believes he could have dropped to 210 or 215 pounds and was willing to lose most of his purse to keep the fight alive or provide an alternate cruiserweight if the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) shut him down to weigh ins.
“If you let him say it, he already beat my ass in the gym when I was 230 pounds,” Rahman Jr. insisted. “So if you beat me when I was 230, what’s the problem with fighting me at 215? What’s the problem with fighting me at 210? Obviously they don’t want to fight. It’s not me to get out of the fight, they’re the ones who don’t want to fight. I never said I didn’t want this fight. The only thing I can conclude is that they’re scared. They tried to wear me down and I said, ‘Look, I’m not going to be able to go down to cruiserweight.’ be an astronomical feat in itself from the beginning. They knew that if he wasn’t able to make the weight that he had a replacement by his side the whole time. He’s been doing everything I’ve been doing this entire camp, the Muslim boxer, Muhsin Cason, who is campaigning at cruiserweight, who shouldn’t have been exhausted, who could have saved the show. Jake Paul could have fought a real boxer, but he doesn’t want to fight a real boxer, he wanted to burn me out and fight a shell of me. I won’t let him do that.”
Cason, 28, is 10-0 as a cruiserweight with seven knockouts.
UFC president Dana White believes Paul and MVP walked out of the event after not selling enough tickets to break even. Paul later posted a video of Rahman Jr. weighing in at 216.5 pounds on July 7, the same weight recorded during his second weigh-in on July 10.
See it:
“Hasim Rahman’s management team sent MVP two weight checks,” wrote an MVP representative. “July 7 and July 10. Both were 216. We requested these videos to ensure that Mr. Rahman did not have to lose more than 10% of his body weight over a four-week period.”
Rahman Jr. insists he did everything he could to make this fight happen.
“You’re going to blame your son Jake Paul that this fight didn’t happen, it’s nothing to do with me or my team, Jake Paul was afraid to fight,” Rahman Jr. said. “All he has to say is, ‘OK, I hit you at 230, I’ll hit you at 215!’ I’m still losing weight. Or, “I’ll beat you to 210.” He doesn’t want to do it because he doesn’t want a real competitive fight. He wanted me to be a shell of myself when we got in there and got in the ring.”
Where the two fighters go from here remains to be seen.