Jake Paul’s ongoing war of words with Dana White has given him something of a reputation for being one of the highest profile voices in the MMA ‘fighter pay’ debate. Paul has even gone so far as to offer to compete with the UFC for free, provided that the promotion increases their base salaries and revenue sharing for athletes on their roster. To date, those offers don’t seem to have sparked much interest from the UFC president.
They have, however, provided some ammunition to Hasim Rahman Jr. in the buildup to his upcoming boxing match with Paul. Rahman Jr. stepped in to replace Tommy Fury, after Fury’s ties to reported crime boss Daniel Kinehan stopped him from traveling to the US. Despite the ‘Problem Child’ being in a bit of a desperate spot to keep his August 6th PPV date on track, Rahman has been very public with the fact that negotiations with Paul’s team were a very simple ‘take it or leave it’ offer.
“No, you have to respond within 45 minutes, before the top of the hour, or the offer’s off,” Rahman Jr. said of the first conversation he had with Paul’s team about the fight, “and you’ll never get the opportunity to fight Jake Paul again.”
The 31-year-old son of former undisputed heavyweight boxing champ Hasim Rahman decided to take the offer that was on the table. But, when Paul recently took to social media to complain that he was breaking his back carrying all the fight promotion on his own, ‘Gold Blooded’ jumped on the opportunity to point out Paul’s seeming hypocrisy.
‘Mr. “Increase Fighter Pay,” Rahman Jr. posted to his Instagram stories under a picture of Paul in his fake hospital bed (h/t The Daily Mail). “Maybe if I wasn’t getting 0% of the PPV you’d have some help, don’t blame me dumbass.”
For Paul’s part, he claims that Rahman Jr. has been working to renegotiate his contract behind the scenes, despite already getting paid “10 times more than he’s ever been paid for any one of his fights.”
“He’s trying to suck more money out of the fight,” Paul complained in a July 11th interview on the MMA Hour. “He’s trying to do anything he can to claw and make the money, because I think he realizes the consequences of what might happen.’”
Paul vs. Rahman Jr. takes place at Madison Square Garden on Showtime PPV. Alongside the cruiserweight main event, the card is expected to feature a women’s featherweight title fight between undisputed champion Amanda Serrano and challenger Brenda Carabajal.
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