Jake Paul has been advised to hire a new team of advisors by UFC president Dana White following the cancellation of his fight with Hasim Rahman Jr.
Paul announced last night he was pulling the plug on his sixth professional fight when he claimed Rahman Jr had refused to cut any weight from his 215lb frame. The bout had initially been contracted at the cruiserweight limit of 200lb before Paul agreed to shift it up to 205lb.
Paul claimed Rahman Jr was scared of fighting him, just as he insisted Tommy Fury was when the brother of heavyweight world champion Tyson pulled out when he was unable to fly to New York for a press conference. Rahman Jr hit back, questioning why he wasn't given the final week of his camp to shed as much weight as possible.
And White, speaking after Amanda Nunes had won back her bantamweight title from Julianna Pena at UFC 277, took the opportunity to hit out at Paul's manager Nakisa Bidarian who was formerly the UFC's Chief Financial Officer. "I'm not going to sit up here and be happy and gloat that their fight fell out," White said. "I mean, both those guys [Paul and Rahman Jr], I'm sure put in a lot of hard work, a lot of training to get ready for this fight and spent money to get ready for this fight.
"But I will say this, just because you [Bidarian] were an accountant here, doesn't mean you know what the f*** goes on here and doesn't mean you can run a fight promotion company. I think Jake Paul probably needs to get some different people around him. If he's going to stay in this sport, he needs to be with guys that actually really know how to put on fights."
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Paul's professional boxing career had been plain sailing until he was scheduled to fight Fury last December. Wins over fellow social media star AnEsonGib, former NBA star Nate Robinson and retired UFC fighters Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley had catapulted Paul into the mainstream.
But Fury pulled out of their bout before Christmas with a broken rib and Paul knocked out Woodley in the sixth round of their hastily-arranged rematch. He then agreed a new deal with Fury for next weekend before the Brit was prevented from travelling.
Paul has offered no indication as to when he will return to the ring but could well turn his attention to retired UFC legend Anderson Silva or soon-to-be-released welterweight Nate Diaz who will have his final fight with the promotion against Khamzat Chimaev on September 10.
