Jake Paul will fight a professional boxer for the first time when he meets Hasim Rahman Jr on August 6 in New York; "I was a tutor to this man," Rahman Jr says past spars have given Paul delusional confidence in his own abilities
Thursday 14 July 2022 14:48, UK
Hasim Rahman Jr insists he will be a far more dangerous opponent for Jake Paul than Tommy Fury when he steps in to box the YouTuber on August 6.
Paul had been due to box Britain's Tommy Fury, the brother of WBC title holder Tyson Fury. That fight fell through and Rahman Jr, the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, has come in to box Paul next month at Madison Square Garden in New York, with Amanda Serrano vs Brenda Karen Carabajal featuring on the show.
YouTube personality Paul has never had a contest against a professional boxer before, fighting another YouTuber and athletes from other sports so far during his five-bout foray into boxing. Rahman Jr will be the first.
But despite taking this bout at short notice, Rahman Jr maintains he will be far more difficult for Paul than Tommy Fury.
"Absolutely. He knows that if I was fighting Tommy Fury, it would be a massacre," Rahman Jr told Sky Sports.
"I've already been around [Paul] on more than one occasion so I know what kind of guy he is, I know that he comes with antics and games. He tries to throw people off their game but I'm 100 per cent focused on the fight. When it comes to this fight, I'm not playing around. That's what he wants to do, he wants to play around and make bets and make little of the situation but there's a lot at stake here."
The two have sparred before but Rahman Jr insists those sessions have given Paul a false confidence. Rahman maintains he was taking it easy on the novice.
"I've been like a tutor to this man," Rahman Jr said.
"The entire session I was talking to him, telling him to control his breathing. I was telling him, 'Don't go that way, you're going to run into my right hand.' Didn't hit him with the right hand. Or [saying,] 'Don't go that way, you're going to run into the left hook'. Didn't hit him with the left hook. Just little stuff, just trying to teach him step by step."
Even in their second spar, Rahman said, "I had training wheels on this man."
"It's like I'm just going to box this kid with one hand. I'm not going to knock him out with a jab. So I pretty much jabbed him for three or four rounds, jabbing around. He's under the impression that I'm going full force, that I'm going all out on him. But that wasn't the case," he continued.
"It was not even a 50 per cent effort on my part when I was sparring Jake Paul but he believes it was 100 per cent effort, I think that's his biggest mistake. This is the biggest mistake of his career."
That, Rahman believes, has led Paul to have an inflated view of his own abilities. "It's almost like he's under a spell," he said, "and I've got to knock him out of it on August 6."
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