Joe Rogan outlines why Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. was canceled
Jake Paul was scheduled to face Hasim Rahman Jr. on August 6 for his sixth professional fight, however it was canceled a week before the penciled-in date.
It was revealed that the event was called off because the natural heavyweight was unable to make the acceptable cruiserweight cap.
However, many figures inside the fighting industry have made suggestions that the event was withdrawn due to the unsatisfactory sale of tickets. These suggestions were made by the likes of UFC president Dana White and famous boxing promoter Eddie Hearn.
Popular podcast host of The Joe Rogan Experience has also commented on the subject where he, too, has agreed with the promoter's claims. In one of his many podcasts, Rogan said:
"Most likely, it was canceled for numerous reasons... The allegations that I'm hearing are that they sold so few tickets that it would be a real problem in terms of financially to break even. Because, what Dana White said [was] that he had heard they had only sold a million dollars worth of tickets. If you wanna turn the lights on, in Madison Square Garden, it costs half a million dollars."
Rogan continued to say:
"You have to sell a lot of f***** tickets if you want to make some money in Madison Square Garden. And if you want to make money on pay-per-view, there's a threshold. Like say, up until like 100,000 buys, depending on what the deal is, you might not make any money. And then after 100,000 buys, then you start making money. And who the f*** wanted to see that fight?"
Watch the full clip of the podcast here:
Joe Rogan highlights how Jake Paul's sixth fight could have attracted more attention
Jake Paul was expected to face Britain's Tommy Fury, who would have been an exciting headliner for the event at Madison Square Garden.
The problem came when the Englishman was denied access into America, which gave Paul's team just over three weeks to find a new opponent. Hasim Rahman Jr. was quickly revealed as the man to take Fury's place, however he was mostly unknown to many fans and viewers.
During the podcast, Joe Rogan explained why the scheduled bout between Paul and Rahman Jr. was not so popular with the wider demographic. He said:
"I think that if he had fought someone who was like either a ranked opponent or someone with a big name [it would have drawn more attraction]. Like Jake Paul's obviously very popular and he's very talented... I think he could be a legit pro boxer."
View Paul's fight cancelation video here: