Nate Diaz is set to clash with Jake Paul on the 5th of August in Dallas, Texas, in his first ever professional boxing bout, and new footage of him inside the ropes has recently emerged on Reddit.
The fight was announced on the 12th of April, and will be Diaz’s first foray into the world of professional boxing after a career solely focused on MMA. He has a record in MMA of 21-13.
Footage has emerged of Diaz preparing for the fight, throwing in some shots in the ring at the Brickhouse Boxing Club in North Hollywood, California.
The footage shows Diaz appearing to be slow, which could be a problem against an opponent 12 years his junior.
Video: Nate Diaz boxing ahead of Jake Paul fight
Fans have been quick to react to the above footage on Reddit, and it’s clear to see a lot of them are not impressed!
“Man, he gonna get killed,” “Looks as stiff as a board,” “Slow and old, f****** slow and f****** old,” “His left cross is atrocious for a professional fighter,” and “Oh no our boys getting done” were just a handful of the comments.
Diaz, currently a free agent after leaving the UFC, has a strong martial arts style, focusing on striking rather than grappling. His striking style led him to victories over the likes of Michael Johnson, Anthony Pettis, and Donald Cerrone.
Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz
Paul and Diaz have had a long-standing rivalry, dating back to the end of 2021 when the former lightweight title challenger was ringside for the YouTuber’s rematch with Tyron Woodley.
The pair’s teams have had multiple clashes since, with the bout finally being agreed last month between the two, but the pair were mostly respectful throughout a tense launch event.
Ahead of his much-anticipated boxing debut, Diaz stated that he wanted to swap the Octagon for the four-sided ring earlier, saying: “I don’t like being stereotyped as an MMA fighter, I like the art of each art, I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu and I would have been a professional boxer when I was 18 years old, but a cage fight came up first, so I was stuck in a cage my whole career and there were times when I got locked in a contract by the UFC where I wanted to get out and do boxing, but it was contract after contract.”
Paul decided to stoke the fires at a press conference earlier this month by taking a dig at Diaz’s upcoming legal proceedings (Diaz is currently facing a second-degree battery charge for an assault on Rodney Petersen, a YouTuber like Paul).
Paul said: “I think he’s a bully. I think he picks on people in the streets and likes to beat up people who can’t defend themselves. I don’t like that. And he walks around, I guess being a tough guy until he meets someone who is actually down for the smoke, like today when he just didn’t say s—.
“He’s going around bullying all these people who he thinks he can pick on, but then he gets in front of me and my security team today and doesn’t say s—.”
Diaz was with the UFC for 15 years, but this will be the first time he promotes himself under his Real Fight Inc. banner. Diaz and Paul are 50-50 partners on the fight, and the money involved is undoubtedly lucrative, though, they are not saying how much they stand to make.
Jake Paul has knocked out three of the top fighters in MMA inside the boxing ring. Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley, and Anderson Silva are the three names. Let’s see if he is able to get the job done against Nate Diaz, or if he gets cleaned up by Stockton’s own.
