Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. PPV event canceled due to Rahman's weight issues
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The Jake Paul-Hasim Rahman Jr. event scheduled for Showtime PPV on Aug. 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York was canceled on Saturday night because of Rahman’s severe issues making weight.
Showtime announced the cancelation during its preliminary coverage of the Danny Garcia-Jose Benavidez Jr. card.
Paul and Rahman, the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman Sr., were contracted to meet in the eight-round main event at the cruiserweight limit of 200 pounds, nearly 10 more than Paul had boxed at, as an accommodation to career-long heavyweight Rahman. However, with Rahman struggling to get down in weight and the fight only a week away, it was canceled.
Shortly after Showtime made the announcement, MVP Promotions, Paul’s company, issued a statement on the situation.
“On July 5, Hasim Rahman Jr. signed a bout agreement to fight Jake Paul on August 6th at Madison Square Garden at a maximum weight of 200 lbs. At the time of signing Rahman provided evidence of his weight to give comfort to Most Valuable Promotions and the New York State Athletic Commission that he would not be losing more than 10% of his weight over the 4 weeks leading up to the fight,” the MVP Promotions statement said. “Since weighing in at 216 lbs on July 7, Rahman and his camp have offered assurance after assurance publicly and privately that he was on track to make weight at the weigh-in on August 5th, going as far as to provide a letter signed by a recognized nutritionist that his weight cut was progressing without issue per New York State Athletic Commission’s required weekly weight checks. In the last 48 hours, it has become clear that these assurances were not made in good faith.
“On Friday, Rahman submitted a weight check to the New York State Athletic Commission that demonstrated he had lost less than 1 pound since originally signing to take the fight 24 days prior. This prompted the Commission to declare that it would not sanction the fight at less than 205 lbs. Still, Jake Paul was prepared to move forward with the fight at this new weight and a new contract was sent to Rahman’s promoter (Greg Cohen) reflecting a 205 lbs. limit, imposing strict penalties should he fail to make weight. Upon receiving this new contract Saturday morning, Rahman’s camp indicated for the very first time that he planned to weigh 215 lbs. at the official weigh-in and would not agree to weigh-in at 205 pounds and informing Most Valuable Promotions that they are pulling out of the fight unless the fight was agreed to at 215 pounds.”
For the full story, including more from MVP Promotions and comments from the Rahman camp on the situation, please check out my story on Big Fight Weekend here: https://bigfightweekend.com/news/jake-paul-ppv-off-due-to-hasim-rahman-weight-issues/
Photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime
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Jake Paul is very confused. He started with a novelty fight against you tubers then advanced to basketball players and retired MMA fighters. Now he appears to have become disillusioned and is trying to package himself as a bona- fida contender. I say 'appears to have become' as in his heart of hearts he knows that he will make zero impact on the 200 pound scene and is picking opponents to allow him to continue this deception. Tommy Fury was a name, a reality TV star but not an established fighter, with a proposed bout that fell apart so in order to preserve the card he selected another name Rahman, another fighter with less than distinguished credentials who had no chance of making the weight. Personally I wish he would just disappear or people would stop buying his fights but f he must continue, be upfront and decide if you wish to remain a circus act or face a real player at 200 pounds. He will do neither but continue to milk the gravy train until it runs dry.
I guess in some parts of the boxing world it did what it was supposed to do with these two guys that is keep there names out there. Everybody got some attention on the boards and on the boxing forums n pods. Manufactured fighters, not prospects, not the type of guys who fought in local gyms, went there to get off the streets to find they had some talent and took it seroiusly and made n earned there way in the fight game not bought there way into it. I do not even get angry anymore but I do not stop and see what the truth is. It is all a money grab. And dont compare a money grab to a prize fight there is a big differnece.......