Nate Diaz has been advised to avoid a fight with Jake Paul following the YouTuber-turned-boxer's win over Anderson Silva.
Paul, 25, picked up his sixth professional win this past weekend by winning a unanimous decision against 47-year-old UFC legend Silva. Diaz was in attendance for the event to watch his friend Chris Avila compete, but he was booted out of the arena before the main event took place after clashing with members of Paul's entourage backstage.
Diaz was name-dropped by Paul alongside Canelo Alvarez in his post-fight interview after beating Silva, but former UFC champion Michel Bisping isn't confident of Diaz's chances against 'The Problem Child'. "With boxing gloves on, I don’t think it will be a good idea for Nate Diaz," Bisping said on his podcast Believe You Me.
"Nate Diaz was a tremendous mixed martial artist. He beat some phenomenal people, had a tremendous career. He lost some fights and he won a lot of fights. The jiu-jitsu would be gone, the kicking game is gone, the general craftsmanship and the game plans and the adversity of attacks, punches, kicks, knees, elbows, strangles, chokeholds, triangles, takedowns, you name it. That’s what Diaz could do. Those are the advantages he’d have over Jake Paul.”
“If he was to fight Jake Paul and at that weight, 200 pounds or 196 pounds, whatever weight they want to come in at, I don’t think it would go very well for Nate Diaz, but I think they would both make a lot of money." Diaz has already been backed to 'duck' a fight with Paul by UFC standout Sean O'Malley, who thinks the 37-year-old could be having second guesses about the matchup.
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Diaz parted ways with the UFC after submitting Tony Ferguson in September following a 15-year tenure in the promotion. Now backed to cash in for a big-money fight with Paul, Bisping thinks the UFC could come running back to try and make a trilogy fight between Diaz and bitter rival Conor McGregor : "I wouldn’t be surprised if the UFC come back and offer Diaz a mega deal to get that third fight with [Conor] McGregor because come on, everyone wants to see that.”
Although his boxing skills have been touted by former world champions such as Regis Prograis and Andre Ward, Diaz has never competed in the ring before. He would need to fight at a career-high weight for matchup with Paul, who weighed 186.5lb for his clash with Silva whilst Diaz was 170lb for his final UFC fight.
