Hasim Rahman Jr. can’t understand how he’s left without a fight this weekend. The 31-year-old boxer claimed to have been caught off guard when learning of the news that his scheduled August 6 clash with Jake Paul was canceled.
The Showtime Pay-Per-View event endured a late change when the New York State Athletic Commission demanded an increase in the maximum contracted limit to 205 pounds from the agreed upon 200-pound mark.
The decision was made after Rahman (12-1, 6KOs) was stuck at 215 pounds just one week from fight night. The commission required weekly weight checks after the Las Vegas-based fighter agreed to the fight on just four weeks’ notice, and made their ruling by Saturday morning. Paul (5-0, 4KOs)—who’d never weighed more than 191¾ pounds as a pro—was fine with the modified weight, though not with Rahman’s insistence of raising the limit to 215 pounds.
“I can make 205 Friday and knock Jake Paul out on Saturday,” Rahman vowed during a Zoom conference call with a small group of reporters Sunday evening. “That’s never been an issue. The issue was them coming in and giving all these demands from the jump. They’ve been trying to railroad it from the jump.”
Rahman accepted the fight on roughly four weeks’ notice, stepping in after England’s Tommy Fury (8-0, 4KOs) was denied a travel visa to the United States.
“We have the email here saying, ‘You have until 11:59 [to agree to the 205-pound limit] or we’re gonna scrap the fight,” insisted Rahman. “They didn’t do that. They scrapped the fight at 8:07. This opportunity was taken away from me.”
“I think that Jake realizes how much trouble he was in. I don’t know if he is willing to do it. If two fighters are willing to do that, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
