Nate Diaz will be fighting upstart boxer Jake Paul on Saturday.
The matchup will feature another high-profiled MMA star stepping out of the cage and into the squared circle to battle a boxer.
Outside of Anderson Silva outlasting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2021, MMA fighters have not had much of a good run crossing over into boxing lately. The novice Paul has beaten the MMA likes of Silva, Tyron Woodley twice, as well as Ben Askren.
The most high profile boxer to step into the MMA cage was Hall of Fame fighter James Toney, who was submitted in the first round by Randy Couture in their 2010 fight.
MMA fighters are frequently choosing boxing over their own sport due to the lucrative nature of boxing matches – just ask former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, who left the UFC as a free agent and will be fighting Tyson Fury later this year.
Diaz (22-13 MMA, 13 Submission, 5 KOs, 4 Decisions) said he’s fatigued of the fad even though he’s partaking in it against Paul (6-1, 4 KOs).
“It’s f——- played out to me and burned a little bit. Shoutout to James Toney. He’s probably one of the baddest motherf—— alive. He got into the cage and fought in a real fight,” Diaz said in an interview with BoxingScene.com and other reporters.
“It’s funny people get it confused with the competitiveness in the boxing ring. The boxers talk a lot of sh!t … but these aren’t real fights. They are boxing. You might as well be playing basketball. It’s not even a real fight. It’s participating in a piece of a fight.”
Diaz’s fight against Paul is contracted at 10 rounds at a 185-pound catchweight; 10 ounce gloves will be used.
“I’d rather have the fight be three rounds. The quicker the better,” said Diaz. “You think I am going in there to play around and stay in there all day long? I’m going in there to finish the fight as soon as possible.
“He’s bigger than me. I’ve been fighting at 170 pounds. He’s a big, strong f—.”
Mixed feelings about the nature of the fight aside, Diaz is embracing his boxing moment – albeit with his eyes still set on MMA.
“It’s cool to headline a boxing event and do something different from what I have been doing for the last 20 years,” said Diaz.
“Yeah, it would have been cool too repping the UFC and rocking with them to do something. But I also just needed a breath of fresh air from the UFC for a second. I think being away from it makes me miss it, and appreciate more stuff in it – good and bad, like any job, right? It’s cool to look at it from a different perspective.
“Everytime I fight, I have a whole other train of thought the next day. I’m here to make history and keep on keeping on. I have no departure time. I have no plans on MMA or boxing next. I figure to get this done and the show goes on.
“100% I’ll be doing MMA again and boxing again, probably grappling, and wrestling, and all that sh!t.
“They are always counting me out, so it’s nothing new. There are a lot of haters out there, so they get to see what’s up. Most people don’t know sh!t about boxing.”
The Paul-Diaz fight will stream stateside on DAZN, ESPN+ and PPV.com and can be purchased for $59.99. The show is also available internationally via FITE. The event will take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
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.