“I tried to tell y’all he’s a runner.”
Hasim Rahman Jr has released footage of Jake Paul running away from him during a sparring session, as the fallout from their cancelled fight continues. Watch the video below:
Rahman Jr was due to fight Paul at Madison Square Garden on Saturday after being drafted in as a replacement for Tommy Fury, who was forced to pull out of the event after being denied entry to the United States.
But the fight between Rahman Jr, the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, and Paul was cancelled earlier this month due to a disagreement over the weight class for the bout.
Rahman Jr initially signed up to fight Paul at 200lbs, the cruiserweight limit, before the New York boxing commission later confirmed that the bout would instead take place a new weight limit of 205lbs.
Rahman Jr claims Paul is a ‘runner’ following the cancellation of their fight (Image: Instagram/HasimRahmanJr)
But the entire event was called off with seven days’ notice, with Paul claiming Rahman Jr had refused to take his weight cut seriously. Rahman Jr responded to those claims by weighing in for the cancelled fight on Friday, tipping the scales at 206.6lbs – slightly over the agreed limit.
Rahman Jr has now blamed Paul for the cancellation and claims the YouTuber-turned-boxer is “running” from the fight.
Posting a previously unseen clip of Paul running away from him during a sparring session to Instagram, Rahman Jr said: “Never in the history of boxing has someone pulled out a fight a week in advance over weight issues.
“I tried to tell y’all, ‘he’s a runner he’s a track star’.”
The video sent to Paul’s camp showed Rahman Jr weighing it at 216lb, 30 days before the fight. But he later conceded that his coach had used a screwdriver to alter the scales.
Despite that admission, Rahman Jr insisted he would have had “no problem” fighting Paul at the agreed 205lb limit.
“We can fight at 205lb that is no problem to me, we can get it on,” said Rahman Jr earlier this week.
“I’m definitely highly interested in hurting this man and it would not be at a detriment to me to do it at 205lbs. I am ready to do that I will make 205lbs on Friday.”
Boxing…His own promoter called reporters on Saturday telling them he can’t make the weight. You can spin it all you want, I was ready to go to 205…15 pounds more than where I’m comfortable. These guys are con artists. On to the next one.
According to Rahman’s promoter Greg Cohen, the NY commission changed the weight to 204 because Rahman was having trouble getting down to contract limit of 200 & Jake was willing to up it to 205 but Rahman currently 214/struggling. So #PaulRahmanJr event is off. #boxing
But Paul has hit out at Rahman Jr over his “lack of professionalism” in preparing for the fight.
“First Tommy [Fury] Fumbled and now Hasim Rahman Crumbled. These boxers are the most difficult people to work with and continually lack professionalism and confidence to fight me,” Paul tweeted.
“I apologise to all of the of the other fighters on the card, our partners, our team and the fans.”
