Hasim Rahman Jr has vowed to "seriously hurt" Jake Paul, and believes he will "separate him from his consciousness" when the pair meet in New York next month.
The 12-1 heavyweight will have to undergo a hefty cut to make the cruiserweight limit to face Paul, having never weighed less than 211lb in his professional career. After stepping in to save the YouTube star's August 6 fight date at Madison Square Garden when Tommy Fury pulled out, Rahman Jr has been slapped with contractual ties and taunts by Paul.
And the boxer is planning to put in his biggest performance yet when he headlines his first pay-per-view event, finally ridding the boxing world of Paul's controversial brand of fight promotion. Speaking with Fight Hype ahead of the fight, he explained what he plans to do to the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
“He’s going to get seriously hurt, he’s gonna get seriously hurt in this fight," Rahman said. "I’m going to hurt this man and all the stuff he’s been saying is just fuel to the fire. He picked the wrong person and like I said, I’m going to punish him on August 6. He’s a fraud, he don’t even know what he's talking about, he don’t even know what he's saying. I don’t know if he got people to tell him what to say but he looks stupid.
"How are you going to say you carrying the promotion but you not even giving me anything in return? What, I’m supposed to help you and do skits with you? I’m not into that. I’m not into none of that. I’m here to do my job, and my job is to separate him from his consciousness. So that’s what it’s going to be on August 6.”
Rahman Jr lost his last outing to Kenzie Morrison in Las Vegas, but insists that he is fine and ready to go for a quick turnaround against Paul. But some fans, and even fighters like Chris Eubank Jr, believe that his last showing was enough to write him off and back Paul, despite the massive experience gap.
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The Baltimore native has fought around 100 times as an amateur, and has more than twice the professional fights Paul does. When he made his professional debut in April 2017, Paul was still a Disney Channel star making daily YouTube videos, while he had already competed dozens of times.
But Eubank Jr dismissed him in a tweet calling out Paul, which has angered the boxer. “Anybody that’s not with me, they’re against me," he said. "So they can get it too. Chris Eubank, I got a little brother, he fights at 154lb, you can get that work if you want it. We're in Vegas, he be in Vegas, so that’ll be a big fight here. So he can get his a** kicked too.
"Talking about ‘once you take care of Rahman.’ Take care of Rahman? Boy, you crazy. You can say bye to the Canelo or whatever the f*** you think it’s going to set up, because I believe I’m going to retire Jake Paul.”
