It’s only been a week since the announcement of a boxing match between Jake Paul and Nate Diaz, and there’s already a lot of buzz. For a fight that’s not scheduled to take place for another four months, we’re already getting impressions and reactions to the announcement.
Some are less enthusiastic than others.
And that sort of hype is warranted. Paul is famous online and Nate Diaz… well, he’s Nate Diaz. The man that slammed the brakes on the Conor McGregor hype train got a fair amount of mainstream attention as a result and is a mostly beloved figure in MMA circles these days. Despite that, Matt Brown is looking through the fog of hype to predict how it might go, and it’s not looking great for Stockton’s Finest.
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Jake Paul packs a punch
In an interview on MMA Fighting’s Writer vs Fighter podcast, Brown laid out exactly why he believes Nate Diaz is going to struggle mightily against Jake, who already has a handful of pro boxing bouts under his belt.
“Because there’s going to be a power difference, and Nate’s probably used to being the taller man in fights, that’s certainly not going to be the case this time so that’s going to be different for him,” Brown said. “Really the only chance I see of him winning is just simply wearing him out. It’s hard to do in boxing than MMA. It’s harder to do. Jake will be able to block better with the bigger gloves. He’s only got to worry about two weapons. It’s just a million different things.
“It’s just an uphill battle for Nate when we talk about wins and losses, but like you said, he’s getting paid, good for him. He’s going to f****** retire a multi-millionaire. He’s got a lot of money in the bank. I hope he doesn’t waste it and blow it on something stupid but good for him.”
Is the fight even gonna be… fun?
Having a potentially massive payday sure is a major upside for Nate Diaz, but Matt Brown still isn’t thrilled about the matchup itself. He’s not jazzed about the bad style matchup, yet is almost guaranteed to order the pay-per-view, even if he ends up regretting it:
“The fight isn’t even exciting,” Brown said. “I don’t care — but the buildup, I’m probably going to be more interested watching that than the fight itself. I don’t know how many people are actually interested in the fight itself but a lot of people are going to get interested, Because of the press conferences and the hype and the buildup. It’s going to get interesting. We know it.
That’s why I’ll probably f*****g end up watching it and wishing that I didn’t, but I’ll probably end up watching it. I can promise you I’m not going to buy it but we’ll probably end up watching the son of a b* and hoping that Nate finds a way. They’re going to make a lot of f*****g money.
Brown isn’t wrong, though
Brown does raise some points worth noting here. Paul is only 26 years old and doesn’t have the mileage on his body that Nate Diaz has. The grind of MMA, the surgeries, the transition to exclusively boxing as opposed to having an all-around MMA approach? All valid concerns.
Paul did suffer his first boxing defeat at the hands of Tommy Fury in late February, and will be looking to bounce back against an opponent that can be footslow and likely to be hit a lot.
Nate will no doubt present challenges due to range and combat sports experience, plus he’s trained with actual professional boxers for years. His indefatigable cardio also plays a hand here, but whether or not this fight will actually deliver on the action front is truly anyone’s guess.
Nate Diaz is scheduled to face Jake Paul on August 5th, live from Dallas, TX and exclusively on PPV. We’ll know in due time if Matt Brown follows through on watching it.
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