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Jake Paul is celebrating going 10 rounds with Nate Diaz, and he won’t let anyone bring him down.
“The Problem Child” scored a convincing unanimous decision win over Diaz this past Saturday, adding another former UFC standout to his résumé and one with a reputation for exciting striking battles. However, given their difference in age, size, and pro boxing experience, not everyone has been so quick to put Paul on a pedestal for his latest win.
On his brother Logan’s Impaulsive podcast, Paul broke down his boxing match with Diaz, first taking a moment to critique Diaz’s punching power — and also take a swipe at Conor McGregor.
“How did Nate Diaz hurt anybody with his punches in his whole entire career?” Paul asked. “F****** dropping these guys, hitting Conor, Conor’s wobbling in the cage. I could have stood there with my chin out and let Nate Diaz hard as he wanted to and that s*** didn’t hurt at all.”
Paul, on the other hand, showed off the punching power that has made him an intriguing combat sports side show even as critics have continued to dismiss his accomplishments. He hammered Diaz early in the fight and knocked him down in the fifth, a rare sight in Diaz’s storied UFC career.
Though he was hunting for a knockout to start, Paul quickly realized that Diaz never goes down easy and he’s grateful that the fight went the distance.
“When I hurt him in the first round, that’s when I turned it up on him,” Paul said. “I saw he was hurt. I hurt him to the body then hit him with a hook all at once, so he went (imitates gagging). I was like, ‘Oh, he’s hurt.’ I put big, big, big punches on him and when I saw that he didn’t go down, I was like, ‘OK, this guy is a f****** zombie.’
“What I’m happy about is the fact that I went 10 rounds and tested my cardio to the max and felt super good and that experience and that confidence now, going 10 rounds, throwing 500 punches, that to me is such an amazing experience and is going to help me in the next fights moving forward. And as long as I got the knockdown and keep my 100 percent knockdown ratio for all my opponents, that’s what I’m happy about.”
Despite the loss, Diaz exhibited much of the trademark behavior that has made him a star in MMA, throwing punches with volume and taunting after tagging Paul (or after Paul tagged him). It didn’t help Diaz in the end as he went on to lose a unanimous decision.
Was Paul thrown off by the antics?
“It was actually detrimental to him,” Paul said. “Anytime he had momentum, he would stop to troll and it kind of ruined it. I realize in the sixth round that he was doing it just to take a break and as soon as he started doing it, after that I jumped on him every single time and hit him with big shots.
“Also, some of the moments he was trolling, I was like, I’m going to take a breath right now. I’m going to take a breath or too. Being ready for a whole 10-round fight. I’m winning the rounds. You want to take a breath right now, OK, I’m going to take a breath or two too.”
Paul has consistently credited Diaz for his toughness, which is one of the reasons he chose him as an opponent. He now holds wins over MMA stars Diaz, Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, and Ben Askren, the latter two by knockout (Woodley went the distance with Paul in their first meeting, but was knocked out cold in their rematch).
The rivalry may continue if Paul’s offer to fight Diaz in an MMA-rules bout comes to fruition, but for now he wants respect for winning the first leg of the proposed series.
“For sure, I walked the dog like I said I was going to do,” Paul said. “Put him on a leash, bent him over, embarrassed him, knocked him out of the ring. It’s fun and games and stuff and after he’s acting all nonchalant and people are like, ‘Oh, he didn’t care to be in there, he was just there for the check.’ Shut the f*** up you stupid people. Of course he wants to win a fight. Of course he goes to win every single fight.
“He’s in there talking s*** the day before saying I can’t fight and I bent him over on the ground, embarrassed him, put him on the canvas and now he’s still talking s*** saying all of these things acting like he doesn’t care because of course that’s how he’s going to play it. He’s going to act like he doesn’t care, but really I embarrassed him. I embarrassed a legend.”
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