Jake Paul’s business partner and co-promoter Nakisa Bidarian is responding to criticism from UFC President, Dana White.
Nakisa Bidarian is Paul’s business partner and co-promoter at ‘Most Valuable Promotions’ and is responding to Dana White’s reaction to Paul’s scheduled match-up with Hasim Rahman Jr. being cancelled.
It was announced this past Saturday, July 30th that the Paul vs Rahman Jr. boxing pay-per-view card scheduled for August 6th at New York’s Madison Square Garden was cancelled.
According to Jake Paul’s camp the reason behind the cancellation was due to a weight issue with Rahman.
The notice of cancellation happened during the UFC 277 event in Dallas, Texas. During the post-fight press conference Dana White spoke about the cancellation saying (h/t MMAFighting):
“I’m not going to sit up here and be happy or gloat that their fight fell out. Both those guys I’m sure put in a lot of hard work and a lot of training to get ready for this fight, spent money to get ready for this fight.”
“I will say this, just because you were an accountant here doesn’t mean you know what the f*** goes on here. It doesn’t mean you can run a fight promotion company.”
“I think that Jake Paul probably needs to get some different people around him. If he’s going to stay in the sport, he needs to be with guys that really know how to put on fights.”
Dana White believes the cancellation was due to lackluster ticket sales, and not weight issues, taking a direct shot at Bidarian, who formerly held the position of CFO for the UFC.
Taking to ‘Instagram’, Bidarian had this to say about Dana White’s criticism:
“Had zero to do with ticket sales. We already sold more tickets, more gate than Ryan Garcia just did at Staples Center. We were going to be top-10 in gates since 2005 at MSG.”
Continuing to discuss the weight issue, Bidarian said:
“Jake Paul was taking a big challenge. All of his fights have been from about 188 to 191 pounds, and all of his opponents — outside Nate Robinson — have been plus or minus one to two pounds of him. That’s all it is.”
Concluding Jake Paul’s co-promoter finished with:
“They can try and change the narrative, they can try to destroy what this young man has done. I’m proud of him. He’s his own boss. He’s his own promoter, and I’m just an accountant. What’s up?”
Do you believe the boxing match was cancelled due to lack of interest or are you in Paul’s corner believing it was all about the weight?
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