With seven fights and 34 rounds under his belt ever since making his professional boxing debut in January 2020, Jake Paul says it feels like he’s back to square one after suffering his first loss to Tommy Fury in February.
Paul (6-1, 4 KOs) will get another prime opportunity to prove that he’s cut for pugilistic success when he takes on MMA star Nate Diaz in a 10-round, 185-pound fight on August 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on DAZN pay-per-view. Ten-ounce gloves will be used for the fight.
“There were a lot of fundamentals I was making mistakes on. I’m going back to the drawing board,” Paul said in an interview with BoxingScene.com and other reporters. “I almost had to go backward to move forward. We relearned and reworked a lot of things, which is a process and a struggle. It kind of feels like I’m starting boxing all over with the fundamentals and basics but it’s fine.”
Paul is coming off an eight-round split decision loss to Fury in which Paul knocked down the Brit but was outlanded in total shots, 88 to 49.
Fury was the first professional boxer Paul was facing after Paul strung together wins against faded MMA stars like Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley twice, and Ben Askren, basketball player Nate Robinson, and YouTuber-turned-boxer, Ali Eson Gib.
Diaz (22-13 MMA, 13 Submission, 5 KOs, 4 Decisions), a 38-year-old making his pro boxing debut, now awaits.
“Losing was something that was definitely not fun or easy. But I think it was good for me for the long run and it made me a stronger man and built a stronger foundation,” said Paul.
“It made me have to look at everything, including myself to reassess and reconfirm my beliefs about what I am doing in this sport. I learned a lot about myself, my mental strength, and what I am capable of pulling through. Now I feel that I am even more mature in many ways because of the loss.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.