Cruiser Jake Paul was supposed to take on Hasim Rahman Jr on Saturday at Madison Square Garden live on Showtime pay-per-view.
However, last weekend it was reported that the sixth match of ‘Problem Child’ career had been pulled due to a weight dispute.
Both fighters blamed each other for the flight cancellations after Rahman was unable to meet the revised weight of 205 lbs, five pounds north of the original deal.
Paul’s advertising agency MVP described Rahman as ‘deceptive’ and ‘calculative’ in their official statement.
“MVP and Jake Paul will not reward someone who has behaved in such a deceptive and calculated manner.”
Rahman, who fought in the heavyweight division, is said to have contracted to fight at 200lbs on July 6 but weighed more than 16 pounds the next day.
In his final bout, losing to James McKenzie Morrison, Rahman weighed 224lbs.
It was later revealed that the 31-year-old had only lost a pound and would only be up against Paul at 215lbs, which ultimately brought the fight to a halt.
One man who somehow predicted that cancellation was Shawn Porter.
Former two-time welterweight champion spoke to FightHub and tell how the situation will unfold.
“He is [Rahman] with a higher weight, they will demand him, forcing him to pull his own weight down. “
“They’ll massage it, Jake Paul, they’ll massage it. They will cancel the fight and make it all Hasim’s fault and they won’t take rap for anything. He has a way to do this so he covers all the bases. “
Rahman agreed to join the fight 4 weeks ago after Tommy Fury withdrew from fighting Paul for the second time in a row. He responded to the news that the fight was called off and blamed Jake Paul directly.
“Jake and his ‘team’ canceled this fight, not me! I signed on to gain 200lbs in three weeks, but my body won’t let me do it. “
“Where in boxing do you see them cancel a week before? There are penalties involved, I’ll fight you for a minimum of $5,000. He said he hit my ass at 230, so what does it matter if he hit me at 215 or 210, obviously they don’t want to fight, they don’t want to fight.”
“I never said I didn’t want this war. I concluded that they were scared, they were trying to consume me. I told them I couldn’t be relegated to cruiser, it was an astronomical feat, I would have to lose a pound a day for 30 days to make 200lbs. “
“However, if I don’t gain weight, we have a replacement on our side, the Muslim boxer, Muhsin Cason, he’s campaigning in the cruiser category, he doesn’t need to pull himself, he has could have saved the show. But he didn’t want to fight a real fight, a real boxer, he wanted to take me down and fight a shell of me.”
Eddie Hearn and Dana White had their say on the situation Poor ticket sales also had a hand in the August 6 screening being cancelled.
