Hasim Rahman Jr has admitted his coach altered the scales in a video sent to Jake Paul to prove he was on track to make weight.
Rahman Jr was set to face Paul at Madison Square Garden this weekend, but the YouTube star cancelled the fight while accusing his opponent of failing to meet their contracted weight limit. A video later emerged, sent 30 days before the fight, of Rahman Jr stepping on the scales at 216lb which cast doubts on his claim that he was struggling to meet the target weight.
This was leaked by Paul's team after Rahman Jr claimed he was struggling to lose weight but was ready to make a newly agreed 205lb limit on Friday. However the heavyweight star has now admitted he used a screwdriver to fool Paul during the video. "I want everyone to go watch that video that Jake [Paul] and BJ [Flores] is tweeting," Rahman Jr discussed when hosting a Twitter Spaces on his social media account.
"My coach was standing right next to the scale with a screwdriver. Like I said, you all can read between the lines. Do whatever you got to do to put it together. That's the reality of what it is."
Paul decided to pull the plug on the fight just seven days out from the event in New York, which is likely to have cost him millions of pounds of lost money. Paul had already had one setback after originally agreeing to face bitter rival Tommy Fury, only for the Briton to be banned from entering the US.
The fight with Rahman Jr was originally to be held at the cruiserweight limit of 200lb with the fighters allowed to weigh up to 215lb on the morning of the clash. After agreeing to meet a new demand of 205lb, Paul was left frustrated with the cancellation and has vowed to find a new return date and opponent.
"We moved forward and today, out of nowhere, his team called and said, 'Hasim is not going lower than 215lb, if the fight's not at 2015lb then we're pulling out'," Paul said during a video statement. "My manager goes, F*** you guys, we already agreed to five pounds, he's a big guy, losing 10lb.
"Everyone knows in the sport of boxing that is an easy weight cut; UFC champions cut 25lb overnight to make weight, a 10lb weight cut for a heavyweight is nothing'. I'm sick of it, I'm devastated and I apologise to everyone on the undercard. 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."
