The highly anticipated fight between Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis, scheduled for November 14, will no longer take place in Atlanta as previously announced. Instead, the showdown will move to the Kaseya Center in Miami, according to ESPN after a series of disagreements between the organizers and the Georgia Athletic Commission (GAEC).
The change of venue was made official after Most Valuable Promotions, the company co-founded by Paul and his partner Nikisa Bidarian, withdrew its application for permits to stage the fight at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. The main reason was the refusal of the Georgia authorities to approve an event with a marked weight difference between the fighters.
Jake Paul stokes the fire: “Miami will see how I knock down this angry elf”
Jake Paul himself was quick to react with one of his characteristic phrases: “New city, same mission: seek and destroy the Tank … Miami will see how I take down this angry elf while the world watches on Netflix,” said the influencer and boxer. The event will be broadcast on Netflix, consolidating Jake’s ambitious project to turn boxing into a massive and viral spectacle.
Paul goes into the fight with a 12-1 record and a six-fight winning streak, including names such as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Mike Tyson and Mike Perry. In contrast, Gervonta Davis has yet to break the 140-pound barrier, while Jake is around 200 pounds, a difference that has fueled doubts about the competitive nature of the event.
Georgia did not give the green light and the controversy over weight is still up in the air
The weight difference between the two fighters has been one of the most controversial points. Jake Paul, who fought at cruiserweight at 199.4 pounds in his last fight, faces Gervonta Davis, who did not exceed 133.8 pounds in his draw against Lamont Roach Jr. According to Bidarian, the terms of the fight were clearly negotiated from the beginning:
From the beginning, we were clear with GAEC about the agreement between the fighters… We will share the details next week at our press conference
Tensions with Georgia escalated when Commissioner Rick Thompson accused the promoter of “promoting something it shouldn’t”. Bidarian responded by denouncing a possible personal motivation of the commissioner and argued that the event would have brought “significant value to the city, the state and the sport”. Finally, they opted for Miami, a city that already has experience hosting large-scale shows and seems ready to host the media show of Paul vs Davis.
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