YouTube star Doctor Mike would be open to fighting Nate Diaz if he defeats the UFC legend's teammate Chris Avila in his professional boxing debut.
The family medicine physician, whose real name is Mike Varshavski, faces MMA veteran Avila on the undercard of Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva on October 29. Avila holds a 8-9 record in the cage and is a longtime training partner of Diaz, who submitted Tony Ferguson in his final fight for the UFC last month. Varshavski already has an exhibition win under his belt having beaten fellow content creator Ian 'IDubbbz' Carter in May, but he looks for his first pro win against Avila.
Diaz is expected to make a boxing move when his exclusivity period ends with the UFC and has been backed to cash in for a big money fight against Jake Paul. Varshavski insisted he is solely focused on his upcoming fight with Avila, but didn't rule out the possibility of facing Diaz if he beats his teammate.
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"I'm not ruling anything out," Varshavski told Mirror Fighting . "I think a fight with a legend like Nate Diaz would be incredible but it's hard for me to look past Chris Avila as a veteran who's never been knocked out. At the end of the day I have to be a realist, I'm a doctor and YouTuber who has been training really hard for the past year so I have to keep my focus lasered in on Chris Avila. If that win comes, there's going to be a decisions to make after because I think the opportunities are going to be flowing in."
Diaz has never competed in boxing but has previously sparred top pugilists such as Regis Prograis and Andre Ward, with the former world champions backing his skills. Varshavski has backed Diaz to find success in his crossover to the ring, but warned him to be careful in choosing an opponent for his first fight.
"I think it really depends on who he takes on," Varshavski added. "I saw Adrien Broner actually challenged him the other day on social media. I think if he goes in the ring against a guy like that, he's going to be setting himself up for failure. Only because of an experience standpoint, so if he does step into the ring against an athlete, YouTube or perhaps another former UFC fighter, he's going to be able to get his legs underneath him as a boxer.
"There's a reason why you see guys like KSI taking easy fights to get into there current shape before taking on a Jake Paul or someone who's already got their feet wet, or has a lot of ring experience. It takes time to develop that, even coming from a very related sport like MMA, boxing is different. We saw that with [Conor] McGregor vs [Floyd] Mayweather and Paul vs [Tyron] Woodley, it's important to understand that while these sports are related, they're different in how you have to train for."
