This past Saturday night in Dallas, Youtube star turned boxer, Jake Paul, bounced back from his first career defeat by winning a ten round unanimous decision over MMA icon Nate Diaz.
Back in February, Paul dropped an eight round split decision to unbeaten light heavyweight prospect Tommy Fury.
Against Diaz, Paul came out firing and had the MMA veteran in serious trouble in the first round. Diaz weathered the storm, but found himself on the mat when Paul landed a temple shot in the fifth.
After the smoke cleared, Paul was awarded the victory with scores of 97-92, 98-91 and 98-91.
Paul has credited Diaz as being his toughest opponent to date.
“I was just having fun and that was the missing ingredient in my last fight, now I am having fun back on that side of things and Nate was the toughest opponent I’ve fought to date,” Paul stated.
“One thing I took from it was the confidence I can do 10 rounds with non-stop power-punching, that’s great experience. Just getting more and more comfortable in the ring, learning to box and slow things down. I knew he was trying to take brakes so I would bounce on him when he would do that.”
Paul, who seemed to get tired in the late rounds with Fury, believes his stamina was much better against Diaz – because he took precautions to properly pace himself in the bout.
“My motor was running hot and I was punching him hard and hard and hard, and he wasn’t going down,” Paul said. “He was standing there. So I didn’t want to burn out and let him catch a win and come back with something. I was being patient, being smart, and was looking for the kill but at the end of the day he withstood a bunch of big, big, big punches.”