Jake Paul didn’t want to wait. And now, he has an even bigger challenge on his hands.
Amid the need to rapidly find a new opponent, Paul’s team suggested he postpone his much-anticipated fight and take time to regroup and properly prepare for a new foe. He had no interest in delaying what he believes will cement his legitimacy as a boxer, however.
Paul (5-0), the 25-year-old YouTube megastar with over 20 million Instagram followers, was scheduled to fight Tommy Fury on August 6 at Madison Square Garden on Showtime PPV. Fury, however, was denied entry to the United States from England by Homeland Security officers who stopped him at Heathrow Airport last week while he attempted to travel to America for the introductory press conference for the bout, putting the fight in jeopardy.
Fury was unaware why he was denied entry, claiming, “I can stand here and say I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” in a video posted to his Instagram story last week. Paul publicly gave Fury a deadline of Wednesday to figure out his travel discrepancy, but after a week-long silence and uncertainty from Fury and his camp, Paul announced on Thursday he had officially pivoted and secured Hasim Rahman Jr. as his opponent for Aug. 6. Rahman Jr. (12-1) is the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman.
“Tommy basically went into hiding,” Paul told The Post on Thursday. “He went silent. He wasn’t even responding to his own promoters. And I have a ton of political connections and I had people ready to get him into the country. And I even DM’d him, he normally opens up all my DM’s, he sees everything I send to him. But this one he didn’t want to open, so who knows if he even went to the airport to actually get into the United States. He’s a fraud. His family has a history of doing this, they’re just shady people. I don’t trust them at all.”
This isn’t the first time Fury – the half-brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and a former “Love Island” star – was not able to hold up his end of a fight with Paul. The two had previously agreed to fight in December, but Fury pulled out due to illness. The two shared ample animosity in the buildup, but again Paul was forced to find a new opponent with Fury not available.
Paul and Most Valuable Promotions both attempted to help Fury with his ineligibility, but Fury did not appear as eager for the help. Now, after twice withdrawing from a scheduled fight between the two, Paul doesn’t believe Fury actually wants or intends to fight him. While trading barbs on Twitter on Thursday, Paul offered to pay Fury $500,000 to fight in England, to which Fury responded “I wouldn’t get out of bed to fight you for $500k. Let me know when you’re ready to have a serious conversation.”
That amount would represent by far Fury’s biggest payday inside the ring. At the moment, it appears he’s the only one not being serious in securing the long-awaited fight.
“Exactly. And everyone sees that,” Paul said. “He’s the joker here. He’s the clown. He’s the one who doesn’t back up anything he’s saying. I’m ready to fight. We have the money. I’m paying him, it’s my money that I’m paying out of my pocket to him. He doesn’t have that. He can’t make these fights happen. I’m ready. I’m serious. I think everyone can see that… It’s definitely annoying, man. A lot goes into it. A lot of time goes into it, a lot of thinking. I guess I’m sort of used to it with Tommy Fury always backing out every single time we have a fight. So, this one wasn’t as tough to deal with because I was like ‘Oh, typical behavior from him.’
“I think the pressure cracks him. He definitely doesn’t want the fight. If he did, he would’ve gotten into the US. We had everyone there ready to help him.”
While he does not offer the name recognition Fury does, Rahman perhaps provides Paul with an even greater opportunity to accomplish what he most desires. Paul has fought, and beaten, Internet influencer Ali Eson Gib, former NBA star Nate Robinson and former UFC stars Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley, prompting wide-scale criticism and challenges to fight an actual professional boxer and prove himself against legitimate competition in the sport.
Fury would have provided Paul that first challenge. In needing a new opponent, finding an actual boxer was paramount to Paul, who is obsessed with establishing his rightful standing and place as a boxer. To do so, he needed to take on an even tougher opponent than he was planning, without much preparation.
“I’m obsessed with fighting,” Paul said. “I’m obsessed with the rush of it. I’ve been putting in the work. I’ve been getting exponentially better this year. It’s like having a Ferrari in your garage that you don’t drive. I need to get out there, under the lights, and knock somebody out. Otherwise I’m going to go crazy.”
The 31-year-old Rahman Jr. is more accomplished and has more experience inside the ring than Fury, and will provide Paul his greatest challenge yet by a wide-margin. Both his business partner, Nakisa Bidarian, and his brother and fellow Youtuber-turned-boxer, Logan, advised him to postpone the Aug. 6 fight and find an opponent that more closely matched up to where he was in his career and also have enough time to train and prepare for a new foe. It’s a massive risk, one very few fighters would be willing to take just five bouts into their professional careers.
It’s a risk Paul promises is worth it. He has heard the criticism about his career and what his ambitions really are in the sport. But he also knows a win against Rahman Jr. will help him take a quantum leap towards what he most wants to be and prove.
And for him, that’s all that matters.
“I think it just puts my money where my mouth is,” Paul said. “I’m stepping up to the plate. I talk a lot of shit, but I back it up. This is a massive risk, no boxer has ever taken this big of a risk this early on in their career. I’m changing the sport forever. I’m showing people the way to make big fights right off the bat, and we don’t want to see boxers in the future take all these fights to build up their records. Dive into the deep end, make the tough fights happen right now, because that’s what boxing needs. And I’m setting the example for that.”
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