The proposed fight between Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis, facing opposition in Georgia from a top boxing official, will now be held in Miami, according to Most Valuable Promotions, co-founded by Paul.
The fight, originally scheduled to be held Nov. 14 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, will be held Nov. 14 at the Kaseya Center, according to a press release issued by MVP on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Kaseya Center is home to the NBA’s Miami Heat and has a capacity of about 20,000.
MVP did not immediately respond to questions about whether the Florida Athletic Commission had approved the fight. Members of the commission did not return messages USA TODAY Sports left by email, voicemail and text message.
Rick Thompson, chairman of the Georgia Athletic Entertainment Commission (GAEC), told USA TODAY Sports he adamantly opposed the fight in part because of the weight discrepancy of the two boxers. Paul weighed in at 199½ pounds for his last fight and Davis weighed in at 133¾ pounds for his previous fight.
The GAEC was scheduled to meet on Thursday, Sept. 18, and vote on MVP’s request for a rule waiver to address restrictions on the allowed weight difference between boxers. But MVP withdrew the request and others related to gaining approval to hold the fight in Georgia.
‘We’re grateful to State Farm Arena and the GAEC for their support in this process,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of MVP, said in the press release.
Thompson, who serves as one of GAEC’s five commissioners, told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday, Sept. 16, that MVP had withdrawn their request for event permits and rule waivers required to hold the event in Georgia. MVP would have needed the votes of three of the five commissioners to gain approval.
On Wednesday, tickets to the scheduled fight in State Farm Arena still were available for purchase online, and the fight still was listed on the State Farm Arena event calendar. MVP announced the fight, which is supposed to be carried by Netflix, on Aug. 20.
MVP did not respond to questions about the fight USA TODAY Sports submitted by email and text message.
But in its press release, MVP said press conferences for the fight and its new location are scheduled for Sept. 22 in New York and Sept. 23 in Miami. Initially, press conferences had been scheduled for Sept. 17 in New York and Nov. 18 in Atlanta.
Weight discrepancy issue
In hopes of holding the fight in Georgia, MVP had requested a rule waiver that would have addressed the weight discrepancy between Paul and Davis.
On MVP’s leaving Georgia, Thompson said, “They probably evaluated a situation, knew that their weight differences were too much.”’
In an interview with USA TODAY Sports on Sept. 8, Thompson blasted the fight, calling it ‘the dumbest (expletive) I’ve ever heard.’ He also said he didn’t think Paul was a competitive fighter.
But on Tuesday, Thompson said he hoped MVP could reconsider holding the proposed undercard for the Paul-Davis bout in Atlanta.
“We would love for the undercard to still fight in the state of Georgia,’’ he said. “We believe the undercard is something people would like to see.’’
On Sept. 2, USA TODAY Sports reported that the proposed fight between Paul and Davis had hit an apparent snag.
This story was updated with new information.