Jake Paul will be going up against his first professional boxer as an opponent on August 6, when he takes on Hasim Rahman Jr. And while Rahman might not be held in the highest esteem in terms of talent and dedication, he certainly has much more fighting experience than Paul does, and will be looking to make that point crystal clear when the two meet inside the ring.
For one, Rahman already has some direct experience with Paul, serving as a past sparring partner for Paul who was getting his feet wet in the fight game. But Rahman tells Sky Sports, he was more of a tutor than a sparring partner for Paul.
“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.”
Rahman would continue by recounting how he sparred Paul using only a jab, and that for some reason Paul is under the impression he was going full force, giving him a false sense of security as it relates to what he’s going to experience in a few weeks.
“It was not even a 50 percent effort on my part when I was sparring Jake Paul but he believes it was 100 percent effort, I think that’s his biggest mistake. This is the biggest mistake of his career.”
In the end, Rahman would reference Paul’s over-inflated opinion of himself as a spell, one that he plans to forcibly knock Paul out of on fight night. Hopefully Rahman will be in good enough condition to give his best effort come fight night, while at least some question whether or not he’ll be a compromised fighter.