Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. card cancelled after Rahman Jr. unable to make weight

Jake Paul’s upcoming fight scheduled on Aug. 6 in New York has been scrapped after his opponent Hasim Rahman Jr. was unable to make the agreed upon weight for the Showtime pay-per-view main event, Paul’s promotion announced and Showtime officials confirmed to MMA Fighting.

Most Valuable Promotions, which Paul co-owns with business partner Nakisa Bidarian, made the announcement on Saturday after a report from Boxingscene.com initially said the bout would be contracted as a 205-pound fight and later reported its cancellation.

MVP issued a statement on the cancellation: “On July 5, Hasim Rahman Jr. signed a bout agreement to fight Jake Paul on Aug. 6 at Madison Square Garden at a maximum weight of 200 pounds. 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 percent of his weight over the four weeks leading up to the fight.

“Since weighing in at 216 pounds 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 Aug. 5, 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.”

Initial requests for comment to Rahman Jr.’s reps were not returned.

According to Paul’s team, the 31-year-old fighter had barely lost any weight, and the team said the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman later demanded the fight take place at a completely different weight – or he would no longer compete. That ultimately forced Paul to cancel the bout and scrap the card, which also featured Amanda Serrano in the co-main event.

“On Friday, Rahman submitted a weight check to the New York State Athletic Commission that demonstrated he had lost less than one 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 pounds. 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 reflecting a 205-pound 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 pounds 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.

“MVP and Jake Paul will not reward someone that has conducted themselves in such a deceiving and calculated manner. Therefore, MVP is left with no choice but to cancel the Aug. 6 event. This forced outcome impacts Jake Paul, Amanda Serrano and every other fighter on this card who have trained tirelessly over the past few months for this event. The boxing community must hold Hasim Rahman Jr. liable for his lack of professionalism. There has been endless work, time and money put into building this event and we want to thank our team, Showtime, Madison Square Garden, Holden Boxing and all of our partners for their continued support. Above everything, we want to thank our fans for their commitment to the athletes and the sport of boxing.”

Paul’s team added that refunds will be issued for all tickets and pay-per-views already sold for the now-cancelled card.

It’s an unfortunate turn of events for Paul, who was originally scheduled to face Tommy Fury on Aug. 6 until the former reality star was denied entry into the U.S. Multiple reports attributed the denial to the Fury family’s association with alleged criminal figure Daniel Kinahan.

Fury was pulled from the card and replaced by Rahman, who accepted the contest after suffering a knockout loss to Kenzie Morrison in his previous outing in April.

Now, the entire card has been scrapped, and there’s no word when Paul might compete again.

Following the announcement, Paul blasted Rahman for his behavior while also issuing an apology to all of the other fighters affected by the cancellation.

“First Tommy Fumbled and now Hasim Rahman crumbled,” Paul wrote on Twitter. “These boxers are the most difficult people to work with and continually lack professionalism and confidence to fight me.I apologize to all of the of the other fighters on the card, our partners, our team and the fans.”