Jake Paul might be getting too big for his britches. Literally.
“The Problem Child” has lined up a fight with WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis, which is currently being promoted as taking place at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Nov. 14 with the event streaming live on Netflix. However, USA Today reported Wednesday the bout was not finalized due to the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission not officially approving the bout due to the enormous weight difference between the fighters.
For his most recent bout against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this past June, Paul weighed in at 199.4 pounds. Davis has never weighed in at more than 140 pounds for a fight.
According to GAEC chairman Rick Thompson, Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions team should not be advertising the event.
“I believe it’s in the public’s interest to know that because they’ve been promoting something they should not have been,” Thompson told USA Today.
MVP was to see their request for event permits and rule waivers reviewed at a meeting of the GAEC on Thursday, but the item has been removed from the agenda. As of Wednesday, a presale signup for the event was still available on the State Farm Arena website, though a ticket sale date is shown as still to be announced.
Thompson is specifically opposed to modifying the rules to allow for two boxers who are considerably far apart in weight to compete against one another, and he did not expect the commission would approve the request.
“They probably evaluated a situation, knew that their weight differences were too much,” Thompson said.
Neither Paul nor MVP have issued a public statement about any potential location change yet. Press conferences were scheduled to take place in New York on Wednesday and Atlanta on Thursday, but MVP announced via a press release that both events were cancelled with a first press conference for the fight now scheduled to take place Monday in New York.