Eddie Hearn has echoed UFC president Dana White's theory that Jake Paul's fight was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
Paul was set to face Rahman Jr in his sixth professional fight at Madison Square Garden this weekend, but the fight was shelved at late notice. The YouTube star accused his rival of failing to cooperate with their agreed 205lb weight limit, and believes his rival planned to tip the scales at 215lb at Friday's weigh-in.
White explained his theory as to why the fight was cancelled, when he said: "I think they sold under $1million in tickets and it costs $500,000 to turn the f***ing lights on at MSG. That’s what I think. Not to mention hotel rooms in New York and transportation is very expensive."
Matchroom boxing promoter Eddie Hearn weighed in on the situation when asked on an Instagram Live if pay-per-view and ticket sales had been poor. He said: "He wouldn't have known about pay-per-view sales but tickets weren't going great." Paul has been long-term rivals with White having been embroiled in a bitter feud with the UFC kingpin over fighter pay and healthcare.
The YouTube star has worked directly with Hearn to promoter Katie Taylor's historic victory over Amanda Serrano at the same New York venue he planned his next boxing outing. However Paul has shown a different stance towards Hearn in recent weeks and has become critical of the promoter after his assessment of the YouTuber's boxing career.
Paul was set to face Rahman Jr after his previously planned bout against Tommy Fury collapsed with the Briton prevented from travelling to the US. However the fight is now off despite Rahman Jr's claim he had no direct role in the cancellation and was willing to meet the newly agreed 205lb limit.
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Rahman Jr still plans to weigh-in on Friday as originally scheduled to prove his point but Paul has already pulled the plug on the fight and will now assess other options. He released a video confirming the news, in which he admitted he was devastated after losing yet another opponent.
"Hasim Rahman Jr has pulled out of the fight," he said. "This is not a joke, I am devastated, I cannot f***ing believe this; we just found out this news. This is another case of a professional boxer, just like Tommy Fury, being scared to fight me.
"It is as clear as day that these guys have been so unprofessional to work with, looking for any excuse to suck more money out of this event, to coerce us into doing things and I knew from the jump that this guy didn't want to get in the ring with me. I'm sick of it, I'm devastated. This is absurd but there's nothing I can do about it; I apologise to the fans and I'll be back at some point."
