Jake Paul's promotional company are branding his upcoming fight with Hasim Rahman Jr as "David vs Goliath" after the pair showed off their massive size difference in a face-off this week.
Paul and Rahman Jr have sparred before back in 2020, but they came head-to-head for the first time as rivals in New York on Tuesday for a press conference to launch their upcoming fight. The Baltimore native, whose dad was world heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, stepped in on short notice to replace Tommy Fury when the Brit was forced out due to visa issues.
And having most recently tipped the scales at 224lb, around 33lb more than Paul did for his last fight, Rahman Jr is a legitimate heavyweight, who will have a major size advantage over his opponent. He will have to make the 200lb cruiserweight limit and then 215lb the following morning, but looked much bigger than Paul on stage at their pre-fight press conference three weeks out.
Paul's Most Valuable Promotions , who are putting on the fight along with Showtime Boxing in America, have branded the bout David vs Goliath. They posted a tweet after the event making the declaration as well as promoting the August 6 fight date, with Paul looking much smaller in the picture despite only being two inches shorter.
However, Rahman Jr feels that Paul is being disingenuous playing up the size difference between the pair due to his contractual obligations. Holding a 12-1 record, he will be the YouTuber's toughest opponent by far, but will be severely depleted by making the massive weight cut.
"You're stacking the deck," Rahman Jr said. "You can't do that, that's out. You don't know how much I'm going to weigh on the night of the fight. You keep calling me a heavyweight.
"Why do you keep calling me a heavyweight, talking about how I'm a heavyweight when you're not fighting me at heavyweight? If you was really that, you would have fought me at heavyweight.
What do you make of the massive size difference between Hasim Rahman Jr and Jake Paul? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"There wouldn't have been no 'oh bring him down to 200lb and make sure he can't go over 210,' come on man. You saw I just weighed 224lb in April. Stop playing with me, you put a 10lb rehydration clause in the contract, shut your a** up."
He was responding to Paul claiming that he is picking a very difficult fight against Rahman Jr, as he believes he was against Fury. "This is what I do," Paul said of his change of opponent. "I take hard challenges, I challenge myself more and more with each fight, increase the level of opposition and give the fans what they want. People want me to 'fight a real boxer', here we go.
"This guy is bigger than me, he has more experience, there's no reason why I should win this but I'm proving to the world that if you set your mind to something and you truly believe in yourself and mentally low-key insane, you will win."
