Hasmin Rahman Jr Had To Agree To Paul’s Weight Demand

One of the important questions for the upcoming, latest Jake Paul PPV fight August 6th is: what kind of weight concession did heavyweight Hasim Rahman Jr. have to give to fight the smaller Paul and make the bout a reality? Well, we got that answer at the kick-off press conference on Tuesday.

Paul and Rahman Jr. met with the media at famed Madison Square Garden and the son of the former heavyweight champ made clear that he’s having to agree to slim down from his usual fighting weight of 225+ lb. and have a fight morning re-hydration weight clause, too.

During the repeated, interrupting exchanges between the Youtube/social media star Paul and the more experienced heavyweight Rahman, he kept making it clear that he had to agree to Paul’s Saturday morning re-hydration clause or he wouldn’t have gotten the fight,

“Don’t forget you got a stacked deck. You try to bring me down to cruiserweight and then put a rehydration clause in the contract. Don’t forget about none of that. Don’t forget none of that. Take it or leave it. Don’t forget that’s take it or leave it….

“Let the people know. You always talking about, ‘Oh, he’s bigger than me. Oh, he’s a heavyweight,’ and all this stuff and all that. That’s cut, because we coming to cruiserweight.”

Not only must Rahman, who weighed 224 lb. in his last bout in late April, reach the cruiserweight limit of 200 lb. on weigh-in day, but he also reportedly cannot re-hydrate and have food intake that puts him over 215 lb. the morning of the bout.

The move is smart on Paul’s part, as there is a large disparity of weight between the two fighters with Paul having fought previously at around 190-195 lb. in his five fights.

Paul is 5-0 having the last two wins were over former UFC Welterweight champ Tyron Woodley. The second of which was a thunderous, one punch KO in that Tampa, FL PPV. Paul also owns one punch kayoes of former MMA fighter Ben Askren and former NBA player Nate Robinson.

As for the son of the former unified heavyweight champ Rahman Jr., he’s 12-1 as a pro against largely poor competition. And, the loss came in April in Las Vegas, when he was stopped in the 5th round by McKenzie Morrison, the son of the late former heavyweight champ Tommy Morrison.

Paul has used Rahman Jr. as a sparring partner previously, and Rahman was called in last week to replace England’s Tommy Fury, who either couldn’t or wouldn’t (depending on who you believe) get a visa to come to the United States.