Jake Paul is waiting for an opponent to face him in his MMA debut. Nate Diaz is the top pick for the YouTuber, but Paul said that the radio silence of the former UFC fighter’s team in taking the fight is preventing this from happening. Despite zero response from Diaz’s side, nonetheless, Paul said he’s not giving up the possibility of them meeting in the cage in the future.
Paul and Diaz fought in August after the latter became a free agent and entered the world of boxing. Unfortunately, Diaz lost to Paul via a 10-round unanimous decision. To redeem himself, Diaz expressed interest in a rematch. Real Fight Incorporated, Diaz’s own combat sports promotion company, shared a poster of him and Paul for a rematch on December 15. Paul and his team, nonetheless, denied it.
According to Paul, he is “100%” certain that a match between them won’t materialize, saying that even when he’s the one jumping into the familiar realm of Diaz, the MMA fighter won’t risk his career. Now, the boxing star shared more details about the matter.
“I don’t know if I’d use the word close,” Paul told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour when asked about the matchup. “I think there was a point where there was genuine interest from his team in making it happen, and then there was just radio silence after that. Then he’s calling it the P**** FL and all this stuff. It’s like, OK, bro, you either want to make this happen or not.
“And he’s saying, ‘Oh, we’ll do it under Real Fight [Inc].’ That’s not a real thing. We taught them about the business, we taught them how to run their operation, and we let them put their logos on the mat. They don’t have a promotion, they don’t have any infrastructure, they don’t have the funding to make any event possible, so he’s just hiding behind this notion that he doesn’t want to fight in the PFL. But look, I think eventually he’s going to need or want the money. So I’m not writing it off. Like I said, we’re fully ready to make it happen, and he just has gone silent.”
Paul explained that Diaz is a perfect choice for his MMA debut. Despite knowing that he could handle Diaz, Paul didn’t deny that it would require a great deal of effort to win.
“Nate Diaz is the perfect person for that because I genuinely, whole-heartedly, in the bottom of my heart know that I can beat him, but I also know it’s going to be a challenge and I’d have to really, really work for it. But that’s what excites me, going into these fights with it being a 50/50 percent chance of outcome.”
Unfortunately, despite PFL boss Donn Davis sharing that the company could offer up to $15 million just to make the MMA bout happen, Diaz and his team remain silent. Davis said he is respecting whatever Diaz’s decision will be.
“We respect Nate,” Davis told The MMA Hour. “If he accepted that fight, the fans would love that fight and we would love to have him do that fight and we’re offering him more money than other people because that’s respect. One thing about Nate or fighters or entrepreneurs, they’re their own men. They do what they want to do. Nate will do it when he wants to do it so I’m just trying to create a canvas that we’re open for business.”
