Jake Paul’s next fight scheduled for August 6 in New York has been scrapped after his opponent Hasim Rahman Jr. couldn’t make the agreed-upon weight for Showtime’s pay-per-view main event, Paul’s promotion announced, and Showtime officials confirmed to MMA. fighting
Most Valuable Promotions, which Paul co-owns with business partner Nakisa Bidarian, made the announcement Saturday after a Boxingscene.com report initially said the bout would be billed as a 205-pound fight and later reported of its cancellation.
MVP issued a statement regarding the cancellation: “On July 5, Hasim Rahman Jr. signed an agreement to fight Jake Paul on August 6 at Madison Square Garden at 200 pounds. At the time to sign, Rahman provided evidence of his weight to reassure top promotions and the New York State Athletic Commission that he would lose no more than 10 percent of his weight in the four weeks leading up to the fight.
“Since weighing in at 216 pounds on July 7, Rahman and his camp have offered an assurance after publicly and privately assuring that he was on track to make weight at the August 5 weigh-in, going so far as to provide a signed letter. by a recognized nutritionist that his weight reduction was progressing smoothly according to the weekly weight checks required by the New York State Athletic Commission. In the last 48 hours, it has become clear that these assurances were not do in good faith”.
Initial requests for comment to Rahman Jr.’s representatives. they were not returned.
According to Paul’s team, the 31-year-old fighter had barely missed weight, and the team said the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman later demanded that the fight be at a completely different weight , or would no longer compete. This ultimately forced Paul to cancel the bout and scrap the card, which also featured Amanda Serrano in the main event.
“On Friday, Rahman submitted a weight check to the New York State Athletic Commission that showed he had lost less than a pound since originally signing to fight 24 days earlier. This prompted the commission to declare that he would not sanction the fight at less than 205 lb. However, Jake Paul was prepared to go ahead with the fight at this new weight and a new contract was sent to Rahman’s promoter that reflected a 205 lb. limit, imposing strict penalties if he didn’t make weight. Upon receiving this new contract on Saturday morning, Rahman’s camp indicated for the first time that he planned to weigh 215 pounds at the official weigh-in and would not accept 205 pounds, informing Most Valuable Promotions that they are pulling out of the fight unless the fight at 215 pounds was agreed upon.
“MVP and Jake Paul will not reward someone who has behaved in such a deceitful and calculated manner. Therefore, MVP has no choice but to cancel the August 6th event. This forced outcome affects Jake Paul, Amanda Serrano and all the other fighters on this card who have trained tirelessly for the past few months for this event. The boxing community needs to hold Hasim Rahman Jr. accountable for his lack of professionalism. There There has been endless work, time and money to build this event and we want to thank our team, Showtime, Madison Square Garden, Holden Boxing and all of our partners for their continued support.Most of all, we want to thank our fans his commitment to the athletes and the sport of boxing”.
Paul’s team added that refunds will be issued for all tickets and pay-per-views already sold for the now canceled card.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for Paul, who was originally scheduled to face Tommy Fury on Aug. 6 until the former reality star was denied entry to the United States. Several reports attributed the denial to the Fury family’s association with alleged crime figure Daniel Kinahan.
Fury was pulled from the card and replaced by Rahman, who accepted the contest after suffering a knockout loss to Kenzie Morrison in his previous outing in April.
Now, the entire card has been scrapped and there is no word on when Paul could compete again.
After the announcement, Paul criticized Rahman for his behavior while apologizing to all the other fighters affected by the cancellation.
“First Tommy crumbled and now Hasim Rahman crumbled,” Paul wrote on Twitter. “These fighters are the most difficult people to work with and they continually lack the professionalism and confidence to fight me. I apologize to all the other fighters on the card, our partners, our team and the fans.”
First Tommy Fumbled and now Hasim Rahman Crumbled. These boxers are the hardest people to work with and they continually lack the professionalism and confidence to fight me.
I apologize to all the other fighters on the card, our partners, our team and the fans. https://t.co/0q6MxqG3XJ
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) July 31, 2022
Paul later posted a video explaining his frustration with Rahman’s team, saying it was “clear as day” that Rahman didn’t want to fight him.
“Here’s what happened, long story short: He signed a contract to fight me at 200 pounds and he was going to cut down to 200 pounds. That’s not a big cut for him. He’s a big guy with a lot of weight to lose. So he sent a video to the commission the first time he weighed 216 pounds. The commission wanted to track his weight reduction to make sure he was doing it in a healthy way. Three more weeks late, the commission asked him for an update on his weight. He submits a video weighing 215 pounds, so in three weeks he only lost a pound. So the commission was like, “Hey man, you’re not cutting weight properly.” We don’t want you to lose everything on the last day. We’re going to have to move this fight to 205 pounds.
“My team calls me, they say, ‘Hey man, they want to change the weight to 205 pounds, that’s a big difference, you normally fight at 190 pounds. Do you want to do the fight yet? I said, “No problem, let’s do it.” Two hundred and five pounds, he already has a weight advantage, all that stuff, but whatever. I know I can still beat his ass at 205 pounds. And that was it. let’s move forward Today, out of the blue, his team calls and says, “Hasim is not going down at 215 pounds.” If the fight isn’t 215 pounds, then we’re going to pull out.’ pounds everyone knows in the sport of boxing it’s an easy weight cut. People do it. UFC champions cut 25 pounds overnight to make weight. A 10 pound weight cut for a heavyweight is nothing. That’s clearly an excuse. ‘OK, the fight isn’t at 215, we’re out.’
“The biggest payday of his life times 10 and he’s screwing it up. For what? Because he knows I’m gonna get knocked out. The pressure’s on and that’s exactly what happens with all these guys. Same shit with Tommy Fury I’m fed up I’m devastated I apologize to everyone on the card Amanda Serrano I know you were working hard Ashton Sylve I know you were working hard This is ridiculous There’s nothing I can do I apologize to the fans and I’ll be back at some point.”
MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee react to the cancellation, which you can check out below, and on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.