Jake Paul’s upcoming fight against Hasim Rahman Jr on August 6th has been cancelled. This is a devastating blow to Paul’s boxing career who was set to be awarded a ranking in the WBC if he had emerged victorious. The card appeared doomed to fail as Paul’s original opponent Tommy Fury was forced to pull out due to visa issues to do with entry into the United States, rumoured to be caused by the Fury family’s links to MTK Global and Irish mobster, Daniel Kinahan. There will be no replacement and the entire event has been cancelled with anyone who bought the pay-per-view being refunded their money.
The Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. fight is off due to an issue with Rahman's weight, per @boxingscene pic.twitter.com/D7n59y4pq8
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 31, 2022
The alleged reason Rahman pulled out was due to the weight limit. The fight was originally set at 200lbs with Rahman’s contract stating he would lose a substantial amount of his purse for every pound over the limit he weighed in at. However, a weight check last Friday showed that Rahman was still at 215lbs and the New York State Athletic Commision forced the bout to now go ahead at 205lbs. While initially Rahman’s team appeared to accept this, Paul claims that Rahman wanted the limit to be changed once again, this time to 215lbs. The two were unable to come to an agreement, Rahman pulled out of the fight and caused the whole card to collapse.
UFC president and longtime critic of Jake Paul, Dana White has suggested that this however was not the true reason for the cancellation of the card. At the UFC 277 post-fight press conference White was asked about his opinions regarding the cancellation of the fight and said “I think they sold under a million dollars in tickets and it costs five hundred thousand to turn the lights on in MSG”. Whether the reason was due to a weight dispute or in fact based around poor ticket sales it is a massive blow to Jake Paul who was ready to silence naysayers and doubters by competing against a genuine boxer with an amateur pedigree who would have every physical advantage over him, as said before a win would have not only awarded Jake a ranking but would have legitimised him as an actual boxer in the eyes of many.
