Jake Paul's team told Hasim Rahman Jr they wanted him as a sparring partner for a prospective fight with Anderson Silva during early talks for their late-notice fight.
YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul was due to face Tommy Fury at Madison Square Garden on August 6, but he was forced out due to a visa issue. Mirror Fighting reported early on in the process of his search for a new opponent that they were unable to get Silva booked, who was one of their first choices.
Instead, they opted for Rahman Jr, who is 12-1 as a professional boxer and holds arguably a more impressive record than Fury. But prior to making a hasty offer to the fighter, they called him to gauge his weight, his recent sparring performances and his health after being stopped in his last outing.
"They called me and they wanted to know what my weight was, how much I'd been sparring and how I was feeling after my last fight, all this and all that," he told The DAZN Boxing Show. "They dressed it up as if they were calling me in to spar Jake for Anderson Silva because they needed a southpaw.
"They took that information that I gave them and not even an hour later I'm getting a call from my managers saying that they want to fight. It was one of those bait and switch things where they baited me in for all of the information they could get and then they switched it.
"It was absolutely not a smart move on their part. I think that they believe that they have the advantage because of the weight - you don't see Shakur Stevenson [lightweight champion] calling out [middleweight champion] Jermell Charlo, that sounds crazy, right?"
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Mirror Fighting understands Paul's team would have ideally liked to replace Fury with Silva, but the Brazilian was unavailable. This was made clear before the Brit had pulled out when they attempted to bring him on to the undercard, knowing after Fury had missed their December date that they needed a potential back-up.
But the Brazilian has another date booked shortly after August 6, and wasn't available to compete on the card at all. It is expected that he will again join Floyd Mayweather for an exhibition bout, this time filling out the card for the boxing legend's meeting with MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura, which takes place on an as-yet unconfirmed September date.
And despite Rahman Jr not knowing that information when he was called, he knew there were considerations. He continued: "I did not tell them my real weight. Why would I tell them anything real? I'm going to tell them what they want to hear, but what's real is what you're going to see on August 6."
