Jake Paul opponent Hasim Rahman Jr tears into KSI as sparring exchange exposed

Hasim Rahman Jr has claimed YouTube star KSI refused to spar him because he is ‘too big’. Rahman Jr faces Jake Paul on August 6 at Madison Square Garden. The son of former world heavyweight champion, Hasim Rahman, comes into the fight off the back of the first defeat of his professional career.

Rahman Jr was knocked out by James McKenzie Morrison, the son of another former world heavyweight champion – Tommy Morrison – in April. Since the announcement of the Paul fight, KSI’s management has uploaded a video of the knockout to social media which the internet sensation liked and shared.

In retaliation to the Brit’s actions, Rahman Jr revealed during a recent appearance on the No Limits podcast that KSI – whose real name is Olajide William Olatunji – has repeatedly rejected sparring offers from him.

He said: “They can do what they want. KSI would not get in the ring with me, sparring. KSI wouldn’t even spar me. So, I mean he can like, he can retweet, he could do whatever he wants. He wanted Viddal to fight me or whatever because he doesn’t want to fight me. I’ve been trying to spar KSI, when he was in Vegas, ‘No, he’s too big’. I mean, come on man.

“These guys got a lot of kid fans, I’m not no kid. I’m not a KSI fan, I don’t care about nothing he liking, I don’t care about retweeting or what we got to say. I don’t even know who his manager is. They wanna replay me getting dropped 1,000 times, it don’t matter.

“You know there’s only one heavyweight champion of the world that never hit the canvas? Only one, out of all the heavyweight champions of the world, only one that can say, ‘I’ve never been knocked down’. And that’s Vitali Klitschko. Other than that, every other heavyweight champion hit the canvas at one point in time.

“So, I say that to say, it happens, it’s boxing, it’s the heavyweight division. I was fighting a guy that was 19-0 with 17 knockouts, that’s a crazy knockout ratio and I was only 12-0. So, I took the risk in that fight.”

Olatunji is set to square off with fellow YouTuber Alex Wassabi on August 27 at the O2 Arena in London. So far, he has had three fights including one professional contest and two white-collar boxing bouts with a 1-0 record in the former and a 1-0-1 record in the latter. His next opponent, Wassabi, has had one fight and one win – a decision victory over KSI’s younger brother, Deji, back in March.