Jake Paul says he knew from the jump this was going to happen.
According to Most Valuable Promotions, Hasim Rahman Jr. got the promotion, the commission and cheated Paul about his weight. After Rahman Jr. asked to move the fight from cruiserweight (200 pounds) to a contract weight of 215 pounds, the promotion canceled the fight — and the entire August 6 event scheduled for Madison Square Garden in New York was.
While Paul initially provided a brief written comment, he delved deeper in two videos that were uploaded to social media. The videos served as a two-part explanation of what happened and why the event was ultimately nixed.
“This is just another case of a professional boxer just like Tommy Fury being afraid to fight me,” Paul said. “It’s as clear as day that dealing with these guys was so unprofessional that they were looking for an excuse to pull more money out of this event to force us to do things. From the jump, I knew in my heart that this guy didn’t want to get in there with me. It is clear as day.”
Paul repeated much of what was in the first press release of his promotion, Most Valuable Promotions. He claimed Rahman Jr. never intended to reach the weight, but when he came under pressure he used it as an excuse to back out.
“The biggest payday of his life times 10 and he’s fumbling with it,” Paul said. “For what? Because he knows he’s going to be blown away by me. The pressure is starting to set in. That’s what happens with all these guys. Same with Tommy Fury. I’m sick of it.”
Paul concluded with an apology to the rest of the fighters set to compete on the card, particularly Amanda Serrano and Ashton Sylve.
You can read a transcript of Paul’s full statement below:
“All right, folks. Emergency Press Conference. Maybe you’ve seen the news. Hasim Rahman Jr. has retired from the fight. That’s no joke. I am devastated. I can’t fucking believe this. We just got this news. This is just another case of a professional boxer just like Tommy Fury being afraid to fight me. It’s as clear as day it was so unprofessional working with these guys they were looking for an excuse to suck more money out of this event to force us to do things. From the jump, I knew in my heart that this guy didn’t want to get in there with me. It’s clear. Here’s what happened, long story short. So he signed a contract to fight me at 200 pounds and wanted to drop the weight to 200 pounds. It’s not a big break for him. He’s a big guy with a lot of weight to lose. He sent a video to the commission the first time he weighed in at 216 pounds. The commission wanted to track his weight loss to make sure he was doing it in a healthy way. Three weeks later, the commission asked him for an update on his weight. He sends a video and weighs 215 pounds – meaning he’s only lost a pound in three weeks. So the commission was like, ‘Hey, man. You’re not losing weight properly. We don’t want you to lose everything on the last day. We need to change 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. We usually fight at 190 pounds. Do you still want to fight?’ I said, ‘No problem. Let’s do that. 205 pounds. He already has a weight advantage, size advantage, range advantage, all those things. But whatever. I’ll still kick his ass with 205 pounds.” And that was it. We’re moving forward. Then today his team calls out of nowhere and says, “Hasim doesn’t go under 215 pounds. If the fight isn’t at 215 pounds, we retire. My manager says, ‘F*ck you. You don’t have that under control.’ We have already agreed on five more pounds. He’s a big guy. Losing 10 pounds, everyone in boxing knows, is an easy weight loss. UFC champions lost 25 pounds overnight to gain weight A 10 pound weight loss for a heavyweight is nothing. This is clearly an excuse to say, “OK, the fight isn’t at 215? Were off.’ The biggest payday of his life times 10 and he’s fumbling with it. For what? Because he knows he’ll be blown away by me. The pressure starts to build up. That’s exactly what happens with all these guys. Same with Tommy Fury. I’m sick. I am devastated. My apologies to everyone on the undercard. Amanda Serrano, I know you’ve worked hard. Ashton Sylve, I know you’ve worked hard. That’s absurd. I can not help it. I apologize for the fans. Someday I’ll be back.”