Nate Diaz taking Jake Paul seriously: 'He’s a big guy who everyone thinks is going to beat me'
Nate Diaz has spent his entire life looking for fights.
When he was growing up outside Stockton, California. In the Octagon during a 15 year MMA career. With UFC management as he tried to get the match-ups he wanted and, eventually, when he wanted out of the promotion to pursue his wishes and control the money.
“I always want to fight people who everyone thinks will whip my ass,” Diaz said. “So I have to show them that’s not true.”
This is his life, fighting even when he isn’t fighting; choosing not to fight when there isn’t anyone worth fighting. He fought 34 times in the UFC, lost 13 of them but somehow became more and more popular, more and more respected, more and more beloved along the way. Fans knew one thing, he was coming to brawl, no backing down, no lack of action.
No one really cared if he won or lost. He became famous for bleeding during fights and only to somehow get stronger where others would panic — “I’m just like, ‘Don’t freak out,’ ” he said. “That makes everyone think you are insane, but it’s just blood. It’s not really that big a deal.”
And when the 38-year-old succeeded in getting out of UFC control, it somehow led him to Saturday night in Dallas, a pay-per-view fight with a perhaps unlikely opponent — Jake Paul, the former Disney Channel star and internet influencer turned boxing draw.
Diaz has always prided himself on taking “real fights,” as he describes it. So how is this fight — a boxing match against Jake Paul — somehow akin to the MMA wars with Conor McGregor and Jorge Masvidal and so on?
“Well, everywhere I go people are talking about Jake Paul beating people’s asses,” Diaz said. “He knocked out [two] ex-UFC champions. He’s in a heavier weight class. He’s a big guy who everyone thinks is going to beat me.
“So that’s who you want to fight.”
If anyone sees this as a farce, they should listen to Diaz and know it is anything but that.
Paul has proven to be a dedicated boxer and a pretty good one at that. He has defeated three former UFC stars, but there are asterisks attached. Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren are predominantly wrestlers, not strikers. Meanwhile, Anderson Silva was 47 years old. If it was in the Octagon, Diaz said things would be different.
“If he had fought Tyron Woodley in a real fight, Tyrone Woodley would have dipped him on his head and splattered him with an elbow,” Diaz said. “If he had fought Anderson Silva for real, he’d have gotten kicked in his ass, chin checked with a foot and knocked out in a minute.
“And if he had fought Ben Askren … ,” Diaz said before pausing and breaking into a deep laugh, “ ... he probably would have done the same thing to Ben Asken’s sorry ass. Ben Askren would have gone to sleep no matter what. That guy sucks.”
Diaz kept laughing.
“But they all boxed him and he knocked them out, so you can’t put anything past the guy in a boxing ring,” Diaz continued. “He’s tough and he’s good and he’s got a lot going on for him.”
That’ll be the challenge for Diaz, who in MMA was known for a diverse set of skills, including incredible cardio. Striking was a talent, though, far more than Woodley and Askren. And at 38 years old, there is still plenty of pop in his punches that the aging Silva lacked.
Diaz has boxed for years and that’s why Saturday he represents Paul’s greatest challenge yet.
The pressure here is on Diaz though. There is a large segment of fight fans who, while grudgingly respectful of the boxer and businessman Paul has proven to be, want to see him beaten up and knocked out, exposed as someone who couldn’t hang with a real fighter.
They want — they need — Nate Diaz to deliver that. No, he isn’t a professional boxer. He’s as close as Paul is going to step into a ring against one, though.
For Diaz, his post-UFC career is just getting started and a victory would open doors. A loss could make things challenging. He talks about returning to the UFC on his terms to finish a trilogy with McGregor. Or maybe there is a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Or maybe it’s something else.
“I can do it all and do it all my way,” he said.
Diaz keeps his goals simple. It’s about the challenge. It’s about the performance. It’s about the heart he displays no matter what the circumstance. It’s about the fans.
“I would just like fans to, when they are thinking about the best fights they have ever seen, or one of the best fighters they have seen, I want them to think like I did when I watched Royce Gracie fight or somebody like Roy Jones or B.J. Penn,” Diaz said. “Somebody who you watch fight then want to go off on a full blown ninja workout, training inspired.
“That’s what I would like it to look like,” he continued. “I don’t know how it looks. But that’s what I want it to look like. I’m not looking for a fun match or a fun sport. I want to make sure they will remember my fights until the end of time.”
Diaz has never backed down. Not in the Octagon. Not against the UFC. Now it’s this circus, in the new sport of influencer boxing, against Jake Paul, and he’s as serious as ever.
