By Jeff Zimmerman at ringside
“The Problem Child” Jake Paul (7-1, 4 KOs) defeated MMA superstar Nate Diaz (0-1) by unanimous decision in a bout fought at a 185lb catchweight in the main event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
The scores read 97-92, 98-91 twice.
In the opening round of this much anticipated showdown, Pual landed a left hook to head and right to body to put Diaz on the ropes. Diaz held on as his right eye began to redden.
Diaz found success in round two as he landed inside with left and right hooks. Paul countered with shots to the head and body. Diaz scores with a straight left to open round three as Paul came back and is started to find his mark.
In round four, both had their moments landing uppercuts and body shots. Diaz snapped Paul’s head back midway through the round after a small flurry of punches.
Paul landed a left hook to the temple and dropped Diaz in round five. Paul attacked Diaz and landed more shots and was clearly going for the KO, but Diaz stood his ground.
In round six and seven, Paul and Diaz took turns landing shots before Diaz came on strong in the seventh and eighth round with patented left uppercut on the inside. Round eight was Diaz best round of the fight. Paul closed the fight with a solid round ten.
Post fight in the ring with Ariel Helwani:
Jake Paul: All credit to my team and my conditioning beating a UFC legend. I watched him on TV as a kid. I want to run it back in MMA.
Nate Diaz: I’ll fight him in MMA – I’ll get a single leg and choke him out. I’ll fight anybody, I don’t give a f**k.
The polarizing Paul has turned the combat sports world upside down. First, the Disney kid turned YouTube sensation trolled UFC President Dana White to grab headlines and spark interest with his millions of social media followers and then took up professional boxing and then won his first six fights – four of which included former UFC and MMA stars Ben Askren, Tyron Woodley (twice) and the legendary Anderson Silva.
The knock on Paul, however, was he never faced a “real” boxer until he faced Tommy Fury, the half brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Paul lost a split decision in February this year.
With Diaz, Paul, went back to the MMA well against the controversial UFC star, who has shared the Octagon with a who’s who of martial artists including Conor McGregor (twice), Anthony Pettis, Jorge Masvidal, Donald Cerrone, Tony Ferguson and Leon Edwards.
Paul has stated going into this fight that a rematch with Fury is imminent and from there is anyone’s guess.
Paul is clearly an entertainer and feeds off the energy around him. He had stated he was unhappy by the lack of trash talk heading into Fight Week, but it surely picked up in Dallas, and after an intense verbal exchange during the final press conference, a brawl erupted on stage between the camps. Both sides were quickly separated before it could get ugly.
Paul is taking the boxing game seriously. He has a world class team around him that includes former world-class fighter J’Leon Love plus added HOFer “Sugar” Shane Mosley back to the fold. Mosley was with Paul in his first camp. Paul also hired Strength and Conditioning Coach Larry Wade. Wade has worked with the likes of world champs Badou Jack, Shawn Porter and Caleb Plant.
Wade recalls his first meeting with Paul, when Paul told him he wanted to become a world champion.
“He said to me he wanted to be a world champion. When he said that initially, I took a step back. This guy’s telling me I want to be a world champion. I thought to myself, why not, let’s go for it. And that made me even more excited to work with him, because he wants to become a world champion, which means he’s willing to put forth this effort. I have worked with a lot of them. Let’s get to the bread, let’s get to the win, let’s get to the belt. Let’s make it happen baby.”
I can’t wait for the rematch as a UFC bout!
It might go 30 seconds if Nate wants it to, but to give the fans their monies worth, it will go to the end of the second round after toying with Jake.
Another older mma fighter….smh
Shake it all you want, it’s a business and Paul is making ten times more in one night than you will make in a lifetime. The days of great pugilists are fading.
Paul is pathetic, fighting yet another aged MMA fighter. He shouldn’t even be covered on this boxing website.
or commented on
If the circus comes to town and people want to see it, more power to them. I had family members visit and ask if I was watching it (which I had no desire to see it) but I said fk it, I’ll put on the dodgy stream if that’s what you want and we all laughed the whole fight. It was so bad, it was good.
You are laughing at him , yet you PURCHASED the fight! Jake Paul just punked you and the rest of the suckers!
That’s not what a Dodgy stream is. You don’t pay to watch free streams m8 lol
“I’ll put on the dodgy stream”. That means he didn’t purchase it!
Trash
I wish people would stop patronizing this foolishness. Paul is not a real fighter. Shame on the commissions that sanctioned the madness. Too many guys have trained and fought in and out of the ring for respect. This guy comes along and makes millions. Just ain’t fair. If he wants to be taken seriously he should fight serious boxers amd pau his dues. Not hatin on him. Just wanna see the guys in the trenches get paid.
As if that would happen if there were no jake paul. Give your head a shake.
I think you have to be fair to Paul.. he’s trained his butt off for years.. and he’s done ok against the only real boxer in a losing effort.. he’s making money and changing the sport which to be fair was dying a slow death.. never ever knock success.. he’s making money for himself and the MMA guys are getting their best pay checks by far against him…
Fair? Boo Hoo. Where else would the deserving Nate Diaz pick up a paycheck like this?
The Paul brothers were already millionaires before boxing lol
Damn Diaz’ punches were terrible. Absolutely no steam on them. All the wars, plus the age, have taken a toll on him.
He’d still beat the fuck out of Paul in an MMA fight.
See how you give Paul a much fuller write up and career summary article than you grant 99.9% of other boxers. Don’t feed into it, Fightnews.
I see how Paul gets the most comments too. Its for Fightnews to report on what has the most interest. And the fans vote with the comments and attention.
jake paul is still pretty far away from stepping stepping it up a level or 2
As much criticism as Jake Paul receives from serious boxing fans, what Floyd Mayweather Jr did to get his 50th “win” by “fighting” a non-boxer, is ten times worse than novice Jake Paul fighting other novices.
Floyd actually gave many spectacular performances throughout his career. He realized his health and making a billion bucks appealed to him more than brain damage and living on the streets like so many of our beloved fighters have. His brand brought many hundreds of millions of $$ each and every time he fought to Vegas. The money is there, he’s no dummy by accepting it. Brilliant businesswise.
Really disapointed by fightnews this time..
OK that you write about it because it’s boxing but you shouldn’t write more than 3 lines about it..
Know your history. Boxing is full of odd match-ups, weird acts and crazy career moves. Bunch of cry babies think this is the end of the sport or that things would be so much better without Jake Paul. You all should apply for jobs on The View.
Give them wine and the coliseum. It held true during the Roman empire and it still holds true today. It’s entertainment. Not to be taken seriously. This is a glorified Celebrity boxing show with better production. Anyone in the top 30 will clean Jake’s clock with ease. The (P)lanning(E)xercise(D)edication is what keeps him afloat during his matches.
When is Jake Paul going to fight Randy Couture?
Bring on Butterbean!
A disgrace and insult to all the real boxers out there who are struggling to get well paying fights.
Jake sells those real boxers don’t ♂️
Ur argument is comparable to nba and wnba…one sells and one does not. Whats worse an amateur star with 100 plus amateur fights fighting a 1-13 guy or a youtuber fighting a former ufc champ ♂️
Agree 1000%. Most folks just don’t realize it is a business first, then a sport. The only thing square about boxing is the ring.
Paul beat Silva who was coming off a win over former champ Chavez, Im pretty sure Chavez is a real boxer. U should be complaining why we had to wait for Spence and Crawford to fight when they 35 when it shoulda been 4 years ago.
Money.
As a boxer Paul isn’t gonna get to a championship level by fighting old ufc fighters. Boxers coming up are actually fighting boxers. Not the best opposition but still they’re boxers. He keeps fighting these old war torn ufc guys then comes across another below average fighter like Tommy fury he’s gonna lose again. Jake Paul as a fighter is garbage, but he is a great business man.
Boxing is in such a bad place. After watching a great fighter like Crawford probably make less than Paul .
Y’all crying cuz he beating up ur UFC boys . This dude is a guy that made his money being a youtuber deciding to fight in 2020 against another youtuber then a basketball player then went on to kick the sh** out of Ultimate Fighting Champions. UFC should be embarrassed, talking about he should be fighting real boxers when he not a real boxer. He got 8 fights now already fighting 8-10 rders if he fighting “real boxers with 8 less fights and no amateur experience he would be fighting tomatos that wouldn’t sell. He is a regular guy that made money then hired top trainers and inside 3 years he’s beating UFC champs in stand up.
I wish Floyd give a rematch in mma to Connor mcgregor
Yea I know it will never happen…right floyd???
Enough!!! This was the final straw. Please no more MMA vs Boxing. We already know the outcome. James Toney proved it 10 years ago and McGregor followed it up. In the cage, a boxer gets destroyed, in the ring an MMA fighter gets destroyed period! We don’t need to keep doing this! After Fury and Ngannou rip us off, please let that be it, please!!! Last night looked bad. Nate had no business in the ring and Jake looked bad for not getting rid of him early. Fight world, and public, please stop, enough is enough!! Please!!!
You got it
Sounds like you are having a tantrum lol
God dang fixed fight my man Nate Diaz got railroaded wears the justice when you need it help us wbo Jose suliman get boxing back in business so we can get great deals in boxing again God dang boxing circus out here
I don’t know much about mma, but I didn’t think Diaz would be literally incapable of punching. The fact that Paul couldn’t take him out is a testament to just how limited he is. This was hard to watch for me.
I watched this fight with my son,having boxed amature for 20+ years, being a fan of Nate Diaz and never having seen Jake paul fight, I was curious.
Here’s what I noticed:
1) Every time Nate could have taken over the fight, he chose not to. Instead he would clown around or just walk away.
2) Outside of round 1, Jake Paul never really presented any threat of stopping Diaz ( the knockdown was off balance). Nate’s face had hardly any wear on it after the fight, when has nate fought in the last 5-6 years where he didn’t bleed profusely?
3) Nate seemed to make a point of showing how easily he could have taken Jake down or even to choke him out if he chose to.
4) Nate Diaz never sat on any of his punches, only patting Jake Paul when he could have put a little more leverage on them unlike how he fought during his MMA career.
My conclusion (as if anyone cares 😉 is that Nate intentionally let Jake Paul win with the agreement for an MMA fight and another $10M in his pocket as per the agreement. Since Nate has worked long and hard to earn the reputation he has for little money I believe, he’s earned these pay days. Jake is a smart business man and not a serious fighter but that’s okay if the legit fighters can make some money for this circus, since their careers didn’t pay very well.
I had the fight scored 96-93 for Jake Paul
I don’t blame Jake Paul for what he’s doing. He’s making oodles of money off the suckers that give it to him. I hope he’s paying his opponents well too. And I would think that he is. It’s sorta like a circus sideshow, in a way, but with money. If you like it, watch it, or if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. But who can blame a man for making that kind of bread without too much effort. I don’t.