Jake Paul says Tommy Fury is out for Aug. 6, Hasim Rahman Jr possible replacement

Jake Paul said on Monday that Tommy Fury had until Wednesday morning to sort his travel issues, and it appears he’s a man of his word, Tweeting this morning that Fury has “recieved a termination notice,” and that his company Most Valuable Promotions “did everything it could (to) help him (and his) team.”

“He wasn’t interested and he literally went into hiding,” Paul said of Fury. “Second time in a row he has pulled out. Second time in a row I’m going to step up and take on a new opponent on short notice.”

Paul confirmed that he is keeping his Aug. 6 date on Showtime pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden, adding that an announcement would come tomorrow.

Chris Mannix reports that Paul is now “finalizing a deal” to face Hasim Rahman Jr on the date. The 31-year-old, obviously the son of former heavyweight titleholder Hasim Rahman, is really not a prospect, certainly not a serious one, but you can quite easily argue that Tommy Fury isn’t, either.

Rahman (12-1, 6 KO) was ahead 40-36 on all three cards in April against James McKenzie Morrison before he was stopped in the fifth round. Before that fight, Rahman had faced a slate of really poor opposition since turning pro in 2017.

But Rahman is 6’3” and a legitimate heavyweight in terms of size; he weighed 224 for the bout with Morrison, has been as high as 269 in the past, and never lower than 211¾. Those jumps up and down in weight should tell you a fair bit if you’ve been around as a boxing fan long enough, but Paul has been weighing in the low 190s for his pro bouts. It wouldn’t be a total shocker if Rahman can get down to 200, but we’ll see what weight is in the contract if the deal gets done.

We’ll say again here at the bottom that despite Paul’s claims about how easy it would have been for Fury to gain entry to the United States, that really may not be the case. The Fury family appear to all be banned from U.S. entry at the moment, owing to past ties with Daniel Kinahan, and they’re just a few of hundreds of people on that list right now. It’s a good story that Tommy Fury has “gone into hiding” because he’s so terrified, and it makes for fun Tweets, but there’s more to this story than the average boxing tale.