.jpg)
During a recent interview, heavyweight prospect Hasim Rahman Jr. (12-1, 6 KOs) explained that he was ordered to take it easy on Jake Paul during their sparring session from two years ago.
He was threatened, with payment withholding, if he knocked Paul (5-0, 4 KOs) out in the spar.
Next month, they will meet in a sanctioned fight.
Rahman Jr. is predicting a dramatic knockout ending when he faces Paul on August 6th at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The bout will headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View card.
The contest will take place at a catch-weight of 200-pounds, with Paul facing his first pro boxing within the squared circle.
While Paul is confident in his ability to win, Rahman believes their sparring session is giving the Youtube star turned boxer a false sense of security.
“I was just trying to humble him a little bit and tell him, I’m in here handicapped a bit… I knew he was going to chop it up the way he did – that’s what you see where I was upset in the video, like, ‘No, you being disrespectful now.’ It had nothing to do with the actual boxing, the sparring session. It was just his disrespect for the sport and for what we were doing. I came to give you a look,” Rahman Jr. told The MMA Hour.
“I didn’t come to beat you up, or to see if you were even on my level, or you were ready for this level. I was actually was asked by your coaches not to knock you out, I was told that if I knock him out, I most likely wasn’t going to get paid, it was during the pandemic. It was $100 a round—it was easy work sparring for me. It was something I didn’t want to throw away.”