Marc Raimondi, ESPN Personnel Essayist
LOS ANGELES — Nate Diaz got here out of some of the six bedrooms of a preposterously massive villa overlooking the luxurious Bel-Breeze Nation Membership and walked unwell a spiral staircase.
Diaz, dressed in a Mike Tyson T-shirt, light denims and cloudy Travis Scott Nike Breeze Jordan footwear, slipped on a cloudy baseball cap with a white “R” at the entrance, for his sponsor Constitute, and next took it off. He did the similar for a couple of cloudy Ray-Prevent shades.
“Hat or no hat?” Diaz requested a couple of contributors of his staff, together with his president of Actual Struggle Inc., Zach Rosenfield, and cinematographer Elijah Gutierrez. “Shades or no shades?”
Each gave a thumbs-up, however Diaz wasn’t feeling the hat, so he solid it apart. He next walked onto the stone balcony of the apartment house within the hills and settled right into a white chair for a video interview. Beneath him used to be a pond branch with a mini waterfall and sizzling bathtub. Beneath that, a lush, 18-hole golfing route.
Diaz’s first struggle outdoor of the UFC in 17 years used to be not up to 3 weeks away, a boxing fit in opposition to frequent YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul. The 2 males are 50-50 companions within the pay-per-view match. Paul had expressed sadness within the media with how Diaz used to be selling the struggle, with modest to deny trash communicate.
This interview used to be Diaz’s probability to show up the warmth, to start out slinging some insults Paul’s approach. To promote extra pay-per-views.
He balked.
“I think my fighting from over the years promotes my fights,” Diaz instructed ESPN. “I’m not gonna get in a little-kid argument with the guy and act like [it’s] any realer than it is. Don’t get no realer than this anyway.
“If we’re getting to argue, we’re gonna struggle.”
Diaz, one of the biggest MMA stars of his generation, does things on his terms. He won’t be prompted or swayed by outside forces — otherwise, he might still be in the UFC. Paul isn’t so different in that regard. For the past three years, he’s been disrupting boxing, putting on major events outside the traditional promotion formula. In each other, Diaz, the street tough from Stockton, and Paul, the former Disney Channel kid, have found the perfect dance partner for this pivotal moment in their respective careers.
It took a little time for them and their teams to realize that. Diaz had potential fights with Floyd Mayweather and Paul’s brother, Logan, on the table. Paul had options including Mayweather, fellow YouTuber-turned-prizefighter KSI and a rematch with Tommy Fury. Ultimately, several factors, including the real-life heated history between them, led Diaz and Paul to decide on each other.
In the genre of crossover boxing — one that Paul has pioneered — this 10-round match on Aug. 5 in Dallas will be the highest-stakes one yet.
In ways big and small, the result of this matchup will tremendously impact the future of both fight careers and what could be next for this current trend of influencers in combat sports. Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, believes this could be Paul’s final boxing match.
“He might surrender if he loses to Nate Diaz,” Bidarian instructed ESPN.
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Why Max calls Nate Diaz the perfect opponent for Jake Paul
Max Kellerman breaks down why Nate Diaz is the perfect opponent for Jake Paul.
Rosenfield and Bidarian had a video call just hours after Paul lost via split decision to Fury on Feb. 26. Bidarian was still in Saudi Arabia, the site of the bout. He and Rosenfield had been discussing a potential fight between Diaz and Paul since Diaz became free of his UFC contract in late 2022.
Bidarian said Paul fighting Diaz after Fury was “all the time” their team’s plan. But Rosenfield knew Diaz wouldn’t be interested anymore because Paul lost, which he told Bidarian on their call after congratulating him on a successful promotion and asking about Paul’s health.
“Neatly, it could had been a laugh,” Rosenfield said to Bidarian on the phone in February. “Excellent good fortune chasing your rematch. … Perhaps we’ll goodbye unwell the street.”
The two sides then moved in different directions. Paul said he wanted to fight Fury again, a natural reaction after the first defeat of his young boxing career. There were also talks with Mayweather, which included a face-to-face confrontation in Miami, and social media banter with KSI, who, along with Jake and Logan Paul, helped launch the influencer boxing craze.
Diaz, meanwhile, had several irons in the fire, too. His team was also in discussions with Mayweather. A fight between Diaz and Logan got very close — so close that Logan told his younger brother that Diaz was his next fight.
Rosenfield stated there used to be a “very interesting and attractive offer” at the desk for Diaz to struggle Logan. However WWE were given concerned, and Diaz soured at the thought. Logan has turn into a lead enchantment for the professional wrestling corporate, and previous WWE co-CEO Stephanie McMahon stated at a top ultimate yr that the promotion used to be fascinated about entering boxing.
“The WWE came in and then they wanted to take over the whole thing,” Diaz instructed ESPN. “And I’m like, ‘I just got out of the UFC, why am I going to sign with WWE?’ I fight for real. I’m not gonna be doing a real fight on a WWE card or no funny s— like that.”
Logan stated he heard that used to be one in all Diaz’s causes for now not being any more, calling it a “weak cop-out.”
“You can still be a real fighter with the biggest sports organization in the world promoting your fight,” Logan instructed ESPN. “It’s a little lame to me, and I can definitely sell more tickets. I see what he’s doing. I’m the harder fight. I’m the bigger brother, I’m the stronger brother, I’m the faster brother.”
WWE didn’t reply to a request for remark at the subject.
Paul began to switch his song a few Infuriate rematch, too, when he learned that the loss in reality didn’t harm his keep within the visuals of fanatics or media. KSI, Bidarian stated, used to be an opponent Paul put at the again burner for nearest this yr or past. Bidarian felt it handiest made sense for Paul to struggle a “legitimate opponent” once more, which ended in Paul’s staff making an offer to Mayweather.
Time Diaz’s staff used to be in talks with Logan (and Mayweather) and Paul’s staff used to be speaking to Mayweather, Rosenfield were given to his Los Angeles house at the night time of March 8 and popped on an interview with actor and comic Michael Rapaport from “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani. The subjects of Diaz and Paul got here up.
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Paul: It is a do-or-die struggle for me and Diaz
Jake Paul speaks within the information convention forward of the boxing grudge struggle in opposition to UFC famous person Nate Diaz in Dallas.
“Nate Diaz versus Jake Paul?” Rapaport stated. “You want smoke? F— with Nate Diaz. I’d pay $199.99.”
Rosenfield stated all of it become sunny to him later staring at that. The brash Paul were any person whom fanatics, particularly from MMA, sought after to peer get his comeuppance. He had overwhelmed former UFC champions Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva in boxing, the previous by means of one-punch knockout. Diaz himself felt like Paul has talked disrespectfully about MMA combatants. Diaz slapped a member of Paul’s staff behind the curtain in October sooner than Paul’s struggle with Silva. Paul next known as out Diaz in his postfight interview, telling Diaz to “stop being a b—- and fight me.”
In keeping with the interview with Rapaport, Rosenfield learned that Paul had misplaced none of that “heel heat,” to borrow a professional wrestling time period, in his loss to Infuriate. There used to be nonetheless a tale between Paul and Diaz that were left unexplored.
“So, from the outsider’s point of view, you’re wondering how Jake is really received,” Rosenfield stated. “And what Michael was able to show is there’s still very much this desire for the right guy to come in and end this for him. We started thinking, ‘Well, maybe this makes sense.’ Maybe it’s our opportunity, from a business standpoint, to put an end to Jake Paul boxing, while he can feel the same way and get what he’s been chasing for years, which was the opportunity to fight Nate.”
Rosenfield known as Bidarian and instructed him as a lot. After the 2 of them known as their respective trade companions, who have been on board. And the negotiations started. There have been enough of items to speak about, from funds to pay-per-view distribution to weight to collection of rounds. The essential pledge from the start used to be that Paul’s Maximum Worthy Promotions and Diaz’s Actual Struggle Inc. could be 50-50 companions on the whole thing. Issues have been i’m ready in movement as soon as Paul and Diaz gave their sign-off. The struggle used to be introduced on April 12.
“Jake has had that [drawing] power on his own, but he’s never had a true peer, side by side, that can carry an event himself,” Bidarian stated. “Now there’s two ‘A’ sides fighting for the first time in Jake’s career.”
Time Diaz has stated he needs to struggle handiest population coming off a win, Rosenfield stated Diaz noticed similarities to his personal UFC defeats in Paul’s loss to Infuriate. Paul used to be the one one that scored a knockdown in that struggle, within the ultimate spherical — now not not like when Diaz fought wave UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards in 2021 and rocked him with a punch within the 5th spherical, arguably probably the most harmful unmarried squander of the bout.
“Jake’s the one doing the biggest things,” Diaz stated. “I believe he’s the tougher brother. He’s the one who’s been boxing more people and at a higher level. He’s motivated and hungry and moving forward. And I’m on the same page as that.”
Paul knocked out ex-NBA veteran Nate Robinson in November 2020 at the undercard of an exhibition fit between legends Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. After, he knocked out former MMA champion and Olympic wrestler Ben Askren in April 2021.
All of the week, Paul created a ton of consideration for himself on social media and in interviews. Logan, who had two frequent boxing fits with KSI, next fought Mayweather in an exhibition in June 2021. Influencers and celebrities have been getting within the ring and boxing become large trade, reputedly in a single day. MMA combatants, together with former UFC champions, have been additionally moving into at the motion. Some promotions that simply placed on that style of fights began to sprout up in a couple of nations.
Paul felt answerable for the increase and the possible bubble bursting in this newly advanced commodity, for higher or worse.
“For the longest time, I was carrying the influencer boxing wave and my worst fear was losing, because I didn’t know what would happen on the other side of that,” Paul stated.
Experiencing his first loss, in opposition to Infuriate, has modified that. Paul isn’t any much less of a celebrity now than he used to be sooner than, and influencer boxing assists in keeping on trucking.
“I think the loss actually made me more relatable, because for some reason people think of celebrities as not humans,” Paul stated. “If anything, it’s grown my fan base and given me the opportunity to come back, and people see now how serious I am about it, doubling down now after a loss.”
Some would say he’s even put himself right into a nook. Paul, 26, is greater than a 3-1 making a bet favourite over the 38-year-old Diaz, so population be expecting him to win and win large. That’s a deadly place to be in in opposition to Diaz, who has made a occupation out of being the sturdy underdog with otherworldly aerobic. Simply ask Conor McGregor, whom Diaz passed his first UFC loss in 2016 later weathering a plethora hurricane of haymakers.
A loss to Diaz may just trade the process Paul’s occupation.
“His boxing career is on the line, in terms of being one of the top three or four guys in the entire sport globally,” Bidarian stated, regarding Paul’s drawing energy. “I think if he was to lose, he’d just go to being another prospect that’s coming up in the ring.”
If Paul beats Diaz, he’s hoping to trap him into doing an MMA struggle in PFL, which Paul has signed with as an fairness spouse and for a while run in MMA. Paul and PFL have introduced Diaz $10 million for that imaginable struggle, which Rosenfield showed is legit.
Diaz stated he may well be evident to that, however he’s going through his personal primary stakes. Probably the most greatest fights in struggle sports activities historical past, a trilogy with McGregor, remains to be available in the market, and Diaz has made it recognized he’s keen to go back to the UFC for large fights that he reveals fascinating. If he beats Paul, completing the tale with McGregor — in addition to a number of alternative fights just like the aforementioned bouts with Mayweather and Logan — turns into even larger. With a loss, it’s brittle to mention. Relying on what the struggle with Paul looks as if, Diaz’s leverage may well be decreased.
“Everything changes with every fight,” Diaz stated.
Diaz is already a legend in struggle sports activities, and a win or loss right here gained’t essentially impact that. However an unsightly defeat may just affect his while negotiating energy and the cachet of a 3rd struggle with McGregor.
“I don’t think his place in the sport is at stake,” Bidarian stated of Diaz. “I just think it’s about what’s next for him and how much leverage does he have in dictating what’s next versus having to accept what’s next.”
Plus, if Paul wins, he’s made deny mysterious that he needs to struggle McGregor in boxing and he’s keen to paintings with the UFC and mum or dad corporate Undertaking to produce it occur.
“I see a roadmap where I knock out Nate and then go to Conor McGregor,” Paul instructed ESPN in Would possibly. “[I can] do what Conor couldn’t do — knock out Nate. And then that’ll be the biggest fight in combat sports that could possibly be made, is me versus Conor.”
Win or lose, Saturday might be a profitable night time for each males. Paul and Diaz will every produce “well into the eight figures,” according to Rosenfield, who added that every fighter will produce seven figures simply from the development’s sponsors at the ring rejected. Paul and Diaz gets cuts of pay-per-view buys, price ticket gross sales and products, and the cash from their very own sponsors.
That’s unutilized dimension for Diaz, who complained sooner than the general struggle on his UFC commitment ultimate September that he needed to put on Beneath Armour footwear from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s layout and he wasn’t getting paid for that. The UFC additionally takes round 80% of its income once a year, according to revelations from an ongoing lawsuit, with the combatants getting the remainder. By way of comparability, the key staff sports activities leagues in america crack income calmly between homeowners and avid gamers. On this bout, Paul and Diaz gets the immense majority of the income.
“Forget about how much he’s making,” Rosenfield stated. “It’s where he’s making it. And when you start to take a look back at Nate Diaz interviews where he might be complaining about not being paid his worth, his worth goes far beyond just what he’s doing as a profession. People and companies are paying to see him fight, and now he is going to be paid [directly] by those people to fight.”
With Paul and Diaz splitting that pay-per-view cash calmly, Paul stated Diaz is “shooting himself in the foot” through now not speaking extra trash and drumming up additional hobby within the struggle. However Diaz refuses to play games Paul’s recreation. Rosenfield stated that Paul had executed a excellent process in pace fights making his fighters “subordinate” to him, and Diaz won’t fall into that lure.
Whether or not it’s selecting a hat or shades or whether or not to turn Paul a double fowl, Diaz goes to do what Diaz does. Particularly now, later being within the UFC for almost 20 years, he controls his personal future, in addition to the future of others. Paul, oddly plenty, reveals himself in a indistinguishable place. They’re the very best pairing for every alternative at the very best future.
“I’m talking about real boss s—,” Diaz stated. “And that was my plan the whole time. And that’s part of being the best fighter in the world. No one’s going to tell me what to do.”
