Hashim Rahman Jr is set to fight Jake Paul this August, but on The MMA Hour he revealed exactly how “shady” the YouTuber-turned-boxer has been behind the scenes. It even extended to their sparring.
“It was a little shady. His coach called me, and he’s asking me how much I weigh, how I’m feeling about my last fight, what I’ve been doing in the gym, how much I’ve been sparring … but he was asking me under the pretense that I would come in and spar Jake as a southpaw for the Anderson Silva [fight].
Rahman Jr On Jake Paul’s “Shady” BTS Tactics
I’m thinking they’re about to call me back and get me on a flight to Puerto Rico to help them out for Anderson. An hour later, I get a call saying they want to fight. So all those questions were really trying to line me up to fight me. It was never a sparring situation.”
He was given an ultimatum on the spot. “No, you have to respond within 45 minutes, before the top of the hour, or the offer’s off, and you’ll never get the opportunity to fight Jake Paul again.
They are that scared that they want to put that much pressure on me to make the weight to say you’re going to lose 25 percent for every pound you’re over.”
Rahman described the sparring partner gambit as a “dirty move” and went on to illustrate what it was like to spar with someone who he feels does not respect the sport of boxing. This came to the fore at a recent press conference.
“I was going to tell him, ‘In boxing, this don’t count – the sparring don’t count.’ But to Jake, sparring is like a fight, because obviously he has no amateur experience. So if he’s doing well against a professional, he’s thinking, ‘Oh, I can really do this, I can really do this to a guy.’
I was just trying to humble him a little bit and tell him, I’m in here handicapped a bit. I knew he was going to chop it up the way he did – that’s what you see where I was upset in the video, like, ‘No, you being disrespectful now.’ It had nothing to do with the actual boxing, the sparring session. It was just his disrespect for the sport and for what we were doing.
I came to give you a look. I didn’t come to beat you up, or to see if you were even on my level, or you were ready for this level. I was actually was asked by your coaches no to knock you out. I was told that if you knock him out, you’re most likely not going to get paid.”
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