Picture Credit: Twitter
Jake Paul, a YouTuber turned professional boxer, and Nate Diaz, an ex-UFC fighter, had a bizarre face-off at their pre-fight press conference on May 9 (Tuesday). It had Diaz walk off from the stage twice as Paul faced-off with a toy monkey in front of everyone. Their much anticipated boxing match will happen on August 5 at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas, the same venue where this press conference was held yesterday, which lasted for nearly 45 minutes.
It was during this event where Jake Paul and Nate Diaz did stare each down for the first-time ever and had a hand fight break out before their eight-round bout, to be contested at 185 pounds in a boxing ring this summer. The proceedings were carried out by their representatives, including Nakisa Bidarian and Zach Rosenfield of Most Valuable Promotions and Real Fight Incorporated, respectively.
Speaking at the pre-fight press conference, Jake Paul had a few choice words about his opponent and said, “Nate Diaz was always the plan after Tommy, that's what I always said in the build-up 'Nate Diaz is after Tommy,' it was always the plan. This is a big fight, a fight I've wanted for a long time, he got out of his UFC contract.”
“Now this is probably the biggest fight of the year, only topping me vs Tommy. So I want to make big events, big fights happen and strike while the iron is hot. Let's settle the s*** talk and I'm ready for war, I'm excited to be here - I'm going to do what Conor McGregor couldn't do and I'm going to knock this man out,” added Paul.
Meanwhile, Nate Diaz talked about the upcoming boxing bout and said, “My plan in fighting is always to fight the biggest name and the best fighters there are. I've been trying to get out of the UFC for a long time because I knew what I was worth, what fighters are worth and what I should do. It was a long road but when I was on the way out he was doing the biggest and best things for fighters and in fighting.”
“I was glad I had a worthy opponent to make an attack on so it seems I've got it. I appreciate everything I've done and had to go through because it got me to the point where I understood what I needed to do and what I wanted to happen and what should happen. People don't really watch the blueprint of what should be done but I was watching the whole time and time will tell,” remarked Diaz.
