MMA Fighting - Reaction | Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. Fight Cancelled

Episode Date: July 31, 2022

Jake Paul's return to the squared circle will have to wait after his fight with Hasim Rahman Jr. has been cancelled, along with the entire event. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee react to the breaking news due to allegations that Rahman wasn't going to be able to make the agreed upon weight for their main event at Madison Square Garden. In addition, they discuss what could be next for Paul, if Nate Diaz could factor into those plans quicker than anticipated, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, The Downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network.

All right, Mike Heck here for MMAfighting.com reacting to some late-breaking news on this Saturday. And for those who subscribe to the podcast network that are up to date with everything we're doing on the podcast network, You're probably thinking to yourself. Mike, what the hell is going on here? UFC 277 is going on. What could you possibly be reacting to? Well, if you've only been focusing on UFC 277 and haven't been focusing on social media

or on MMAFiting.com, then you have missed the big news. Jake Paul's upcoming fight, which was scheduled for next Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York against Haseem Rockman Jr., the fight is off. the fight off, but the entire event is off because Rockman Jr. allegedly was unable to make the

agreed upon wait for the Showtime pay-per-view main event. Now, MVP, most valuable promotions, which Paul co-owns, along with his business partner, Nikisa Baddarian, who you may know from UFC fame, working in the front office, released a statement, basically stating that in the last 48 hours, they realized that Hachim Rockman Jr. was not going to make 200 pounds. He was not going to make 205 pounds. In fact, they alleged that Rockman Jr. wasn't going to get below 215 pounds for this fight. And Jake Paul had already said that if he didn't make weight, if any Tom foolery went down, he was going to just go ahead and cancel the event. And I guess Jake Paul is the man of his word. This fight is no longer happening. Jake Paul's not fighting. I'm

Amanda Serrano is not fighting. Refunds will be issued to those who have already purchased tickets to this event. This is unbelievable. And who else could join me? But my best friend, Alexander Kaylee, who I'm happy was able to take some time. I was able to steal him away from his very busy schedule to react to this news. And I appreciate that. Cough button didn't work there.

Cough button didn't work. That's the best. People in the business, we have a cough button. or some variation of it. Didn't work there. No, listen. This is what happens. Well, I mean, this is kind of the reaction we were expecting here.

But what is your reaction, A.K., because listen, we had Tommy Fury. That fell through. Then we get Haseem Rockman Jr. Sort of out of nowhere. And they have this press conference. And it just seemed like, it seemed like this wasn't going to go well. It seemed like the tickets weren't really flying off, you know, flying out of the booths. It didn't seem like the pay-per-view is going to do all that.

well, and now it's not happening. The clickiness, the business side of me, that's like, damn, like, I wish we could get the traffic from this thing. But at the same token as like a combat sports fan, are you heartbroken by this? Because I got to say I'm not. Well, Mike, listen, first Tommy fumbles and now Hasim Rockman crumbled. These boxers are the most difficult people to work with and continually lack professionalism and confidence to fight me.

I apologize. All the other fighters in the card, our partners, our team, and the fans. Those words, of course, the words of Jake Paul, not me. That his own personal statement released shortly after the official release from most valuable promotions. So, no, I mean, I'm not heartbroken. I am a little bit. I actually just mentioned this.

I am a little heartbroken for Amanda Serrano and Brenda Carbajal. If Jake Paul has done, you know, anything really positive with his fighting career is to sort of bring along, for lack of a better term, Amand Estrano with him, a fighter who deserves a lot more exposure and frankly probably just, you know, needed a name like Jake Paul to sort of just help her get that. But we saw, you know, the Katie Taylor fight. Her and Katie Taylor were stars in her own right. This was going to be a showcase fight for her, with respect to Brenda Carbajal. This was going to be a showcase fight for Amanda Serrano. And now the whole card has been canceled. So certainly something was lost here. Do we feel that sorry for Jake Paul

or for Hasim Rahman, I don't know. Kind of like you said, this is somewhat a cancellation of convenience. I'm not saying Jake Paul, like, you know, foresaw that Rockman would not be able to make the final weight that they decided on. But it does not surprise me that sort of at the first chance they get to kind of maybe say, you know, let's just call this thing off. It just isn't quite getting the attention, ticket sales, possibly the financial gain that, usual Jake Paul fight does, I kind of understand. You know, I kind of understand why this is happening. And I do feel bad for the other fighters in the card.

But as a fan, speaking strictly as a fan, it just really doesn't feel like I can't be torn. I can't be too torn up about it. There's a lot of people who did not care for the Tommy Fury fight. I mean, mainstream-wise, certainly a lot more peel. And then once that was out, and then Rockman comes in, I mean, the interest level just plummeted. there was some thought that oh look he's getting a competitive fight against a somewhat more veteran boxer with with a legitimate size on him but outside of that the intrigue just wasn't there and most people were kind of just I think some people were hoping he would just beat him and then they would still get

the Tommy fairy fight in the future maybe that's the direction we go in I actually don't know where Jake Paul now goes from here oh I oh I know this actually works out great for Jake Paul if we're being honest because let me just say this about this whole setup, this whole thing with Tommy Fury to Hassim Rockman. I don't know, like, if you watch Seinfeld, I'm sure you did because you're my best friend. Of course you watch Seinfeld, but there's an episode where Jerry is cheating on his barber with the barber's son.

He keeps sneaking around, try to get haircut from the barber's son, and the barber understands what's happening. And he goes, oh, I like funny, but I don't like a funny business. And I feel like this is all, like, funny business. Like, it made no sense. Like, I wasn't fully confident this fight wasn't going to happen. been with Rockman in there. And even if it did, I just didn't feel like Rockman was just like the right B side for this.

But luckily, AK, the timing works so perfectly because coming up September 10th, Nate Diaz is fighting Hamzat Shemayev. And depending on what happens there, Nate is done. His UFC run will be over. And guess who won't have to wait very long to fight Jake Paul, possibly by the end of the year, in a fight that's going to do a billion times better. than this fight ever would have. And then a Manisarano can fight Carbohol on this card.

It actually works out great. It stinks. And I think you can even get Big Baby Davis to push his pro boxing debut back to fight on an A.D as Jake Paul card. So all in all, it stinks for the people who actually really wanted to go to MSG and watch this card.

I don't know how many people would actually be able to check those boxes off. But this actually could work out pretty well. Could it not? Yeah, I mean You know they're going right to this, right? I can't believe. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised anymore. I can't believe you're just, you're just breaking that out.

You're just breaking out. You're pulling the Diaz Paul card. This is the time for it. We have avoid, Jake Paul has avoided wasting his time, possibly losing to Hasim Rockman. And now should he take a first loss? It could have been said to be at the hands of one Mr. Nathan Diaz. Yeah, I, I, it's certainly. possible. I don't know. I really need to know what happens with Kamsad and Nate Diaz. I still

think, like a lot of people, that is Nate's last fight, but like many have said, what if he, I don't know, what if he wins? I don't think he is going to. Or what if just somehow he decides to stay with the UFC? I mean, it's so hard tell with Nate because he has been talking about wanting to leave the O.C. for so long, but he is mercurial. The reason we have the word mercurial is for people like Nate Diaz. If the right offer comes along and the UFC still wants to do business with him, it's the home that he's known for so. many years. So, you know, the devil that he knows might be much more appealing than the devil. He doesn't. That devil being Jake Paul in the world of, you know, MMA crossover freak show boxing,

whatever you want to call it. You know, Andrew Silva has jumped into it. He loves it. Nate Diaz, maybe not so much. I don't know if Nate Diaz is, I mean, if he thinks the UFC has politics. I mean, the politics of boxing is pretty wild. And I don't know if Nate Diaz wants to deal with that. Again, he knows Dana White. He actually has a pretty good relationship with Dana White, despite all the stuff they say in public. Does he want to deal with Jake Paul and Showtime and whoever else, you know, may want to, that he may want to work with? I'm not sure.

I love where our heads at, Mike. I love we were heads at. That's a far more appealing matchup than Rockman. It's a far more appealing matchup than Tommy Fury. I am just being maybe cautious with my heart that we could see that actually happen before the end of the year. You've always been the cautious one between the two of us. I'm willing to just jump right off the bridge, bungee jump style.

You're like, eh, let me feel this out a little bit, make sure the harness is a little bit tighter. You eventually will jump, but you just need to weigh out all the options before you do that. So, yeah, this card's not happening. It'll be interesting to see where this does go for Jake Paul because, man, after such a big 20-21 and the three wins and the two wins over Woodley ending the year with just a vicious knockout after a pretty awful performance and an awful fight before that knockout, people saying he could have been the fighter of the year in all of combat sports to just not fighting at all this year and then first fight on the books falls out

second fight on the books for the same card at MSG falls out but Jake Paul the promoters had a pretty damn good year with the Katie Taylor and a manisorado fight so yeah we'll see what happens but I guess back to our regularly scheduled program I guess you have something else to add Mike Mike no one was going to watch it anyway

Ultimate Fighter Ultimate Fighter 30 finale Next Saturday Right Jamal Hill Tiago Santos plus the finals Muhammad Usman Zach Paga

and Juliana Miller and Brogan Walker Come on man No one was gonna want I think we know the real reason That Jake Paul Listen We didn't know

No no listen We didn't know the date of the ultimate fighter finale Until like last week Suddenly Jake Paul finds out That the ultimate fighter finale Is happening next week

and then the fight gets canceled. I'm not saying, I'm nothing. I just, I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. Coincidence? People can make their own conclusions. I think not. Yeah, I mean, the tough finale fights plus the Tiago Santos made event,

there's no way Jake Paul fighting anybody could compete with that. I didn't say it. I didn't say it. Man, you might be on to something there. Tune in next week for a new episode of Unsolved Mysteries with myself and Alexander K. Lee. We figure out what's going on. But that's it. Jake Paul, Hussim Rockman, fights not happening.

Event is not happening. So it is all sites to UFC Vegas 59, Jamal Hill versus Tiago Santos, aka the tough finale. A.K., thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Thank you all for listening on a busy Saturday night. Back to your regularly scheduled program. Back to UFC 277.

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