âHe wanted to drain me down and fight a shell of me, which Iâm not gonna allow him to do.â âHasim Rahman Jr.
Undefeated cruiserweight Jake Paul was scheduled to fight Hasim Rahman Jr. this Sat. night (Aug. 6) at Madison Square Garden in New York City, part of a Showtime pay-per-view (PPV) boxing card that also featured Amanda Serrano vs. Brenda Carabajal at featherweight.
The entire event has since been canceled.
Paul claims Rahman Jr. failed to meet the contract stipulations regarding his weight, forcing promoter Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) to amend their existing deal. Then came another round of weekly weight checks and a fight-ending lack of progress from âGold Blooded.â
In subsequent Twitter posts, Rahman Jr. admits he was unable to make his mark but also believes the unrealistic parameters set forth by Paul and Co. were designed to weaken the longtime heavyweight and give âThe Problem Childâ a marked advantage on fight night.
âI signed the contract to fight at 200 pounds within the three, thee-and-a-half weeks I had to do it, but I couldnât do it, my body simply would not let me do it, would not let me get down to 200 pounds,â Rahman Jr. said on social media. âBut where in boxing do you see them canceling fights a whole week in advance? I didnât even get my last week to get down as low as I could. I told this man, thereâs penalties involved? Keep the purse. Iâll fight you for the $5,000 minimum. Thatâs how much it means to me and how much faith I have in knocking him out.â
Rahman Jr. believes he could have gotten as low as 210 or 215 pounds and was willing to forfeit the majority of his purse to keep the fight alive, or provide an alternate cruiserweight if New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) shut him down at the weigh ins.
âIf you let him tell it, he already beat my ass in the gym when I was 230 (pounds),â Rahman Jr. insisted. âSo if you beat me up while I was 230, whatâs the problem fighting me at 215? Whatâs the problem fighting me at 210? Itâs clearly them not wanting to fight. Itâs not me pulling out of the fight, itâs them not wanting to fight. I never said that I didnât want this fight. The only thing that I can conclude is that theyâre scared. They tried to drain me down, I told them, âLook, I ainât gonna be able to get all the way down to cruiserweight.â It was an astronomical feat in and of itself from the beginning. They knew that if I wasnât able to make the weight that I had a replacement on the side the whole time. Heâs been doing everything Iâve been doing this whole camp, the Muslim boxer, Muhsin Cason, who campaigns at cruiserweight, who wouldnât have had to drain himself, who could have saved the show. Jake Paul could have fought a real boxer, but he donât want to fight a real boxer, he wanted to drain me down and fight a shell of me. Iâm not going to let him do that.â
The 28 year-old Cason is 10-0 as a cruiserweight with seven knockouts.
UFC President Dana White believes Paul and MVP bailed on the event after failing to sell enough tickets to break even. Paul later released video of Rahman Jr. weighing in 216.5 pounds on July 7, the same weight registered during his second weigh-in on July 10.
Have a look:
âMVP was sent two weight checks by Hasim Rahmanâs management team,â a representative from MVP wrote. âJuly 7 and July 10. Both were 216. We requested these videos to ensure Mr. Rahman did not have to lose more than 10% of his body weight over a four week period.â
Rahman Jr. insists he did everything he could to make this fight happen.
âYaâll blame your boy Jake Paul for this fight not happening, it ainât have nothing to do with me or my team, Jake Paul was scared to make the fight,â Rahman Jr. said. âAll he gotta say is, âOkay, I beat you up at 230, Iâll beat you up at 215!â Iâm still coming down in weight. Or, âIâll beat you up at 210.â He donât wanna do it because he donât want a real competitive fight. He wanted me to be a shell of myself when we got in there and got in that ring.â
Where both fighters go from here remains to be seen.
Who was behind pro.oting this the problem child alone or some other boxing douches attached? I donât follow this garbage enough to know.
Say what you will about Jake Paul but donât sign a contract if you canât do the weight. Itâs easy.
You can cry all you want about Jake wanting to âdrain youâ but thatâs his size. Itâs not unreasonable to arrange a fight at the same damn weight. Thatâs how it works.
How is Hasim going to run around and try and make someone look âsoftâ because they are holding you to the weight they are at that you agreed to meet them at. Imagine wanting to fight a smaller guy and in your mind that guy is the bitch.
What a world.
Op is hasim rahman jr
Stop snorting Chlorine
What a fucking joke
I dont follow the current state of garbage ass boxing but did they really call the fight with a week left? If so thats a bitch move. I dont buy their bullshit about being concerned with how much weight he was dropping. I do however believe they couldnt sell enough tix to generate revenue for the event.
Ridiculous.
Sonnen Tells Rahman Jr. To Say Goodbye To Big Paydays
During a video recently uploaded to his YouTube channel, Sonnen accused Rahman Jr. of planning a âdirty move,â predicting that the Baltimore native would deliberately miss weight and accept the fines, only to refuse to enter the ring on fight night unless granted the full purse.
Having come to that conclusion, âThe American Gangsterâ assessed what this late cancelation means for the boxing future of Rahman Jr., and he gave a less than positive take on it.
According to Sonnen, Rahman Jr. has âblown his entire careerâ by pulling a stunt that will put other promoters and businessmen off working with him down the line.
âIt was a whole team effort. The whole team thought that this was a good idea. The whole team knew New York (commission) was coming in. The whole team knows however they were gonna shake this down and what they were gonna do to Paul at the last minute,â Sonnen said. âIf that team thinks that somehow you can put a Band-Aid on this, and that a millior-dollar payday is going to be out there, theyâre wrong.
âThereâs not a promoter out there or an honest businessman at any level thatâs ever going to get into bed with you again. Your days of main events are doneâŚ. No oneâs going to do business with someone that pulls that. Doesnât matter if you pull it on their competition. You go double cross Coca-Cola, PepsiCo doesnât sign you,â Sonnen continued. âSo Rahman Jr., who has a financial obligation, at a minimum to himself⌠has blown his entire career. He has blown his entire reputation,â Sonnen concluded.
Since news of the fight cancelation broke, Rahman Jr. has frequently reiterated that the plug was not pulled from his side.
But Paul has now looked to expose claims that his opponent was given an unreasonable task to accomplish, releasing a weight-check video from July 7 that shows Rahman Jr. at 216 pounds, suggesting that the heavyweight has lost less than a pound in the past four weeks.
Jake vs Andre Ward is the fight to make if he would come out of retirement for 1 fight.
Retired fighter, smaller, big name and friends with the Diaz brothers.
So what was Rahmanâs weight at the time of the contract being offered? Havenât seen that mentioned anywhere from MVP I believe. Given his last fight was at 224 lbs, thereâs no way heâs making weight with this losing more than 10% bodyweight over 4 weeks bullshit. His walk around weight wouldâve had to be under 224 lol. They knowingly set the dude up, was always the plan given the math.
How the fuck you blow that? Chaels right
How the fuck do you set someone up when it requires their full consent AND signature?
I donât care if he was 300lbs when he signed. If it was too much due to the math as you say then it was ON HIM.
NOBODY forced Hasim to sign shit at any weight but he did.
If the math is so easy to you then it should be just as easy to decipher that the obvious set up here is from Hasim knowing there was no way heâd make the weight HE agreed to.
Itâs unbelievable how much people are dying to blame Jake Paul or his team because they hate him so much.
Sure. But if you look at it as an actual human⌠they called him and offered him the fight at more money than heâs ever made, said you have to weigh X amount knowing he weighed much more, and then said you may not go discuss with your team, you must take it or leave it right now and if you leave it the offer never comes again. I think most people say yes, thinking theyâll make it work. Sure, it was up to him to make it work and in a perfect world he would have turned down the biggest payday of his career knowing the chances of making weight were unlikely. But people arenât as perfect as youâd like them to be. And Jakeâs team knew what they were doing painting him into that corner. Theyâre savvy snakes. Could have been handled better all around.