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Nate Diaz may have come into the Jake Paul boxing fight compromised.
According to former UFC champion Rampage Jackson, he was able to get info from Nate Diaz himself about injuries prior to the boxing match.
Rampage reveals Nate Diaz’s injuries coming into Jake Paul fight
“It was a very entertaining fight, in my opinion,” Quinton Jackson said on his podcast (HT: MMA Mania). “I watched it as entertainment. You know I’m going for Nate, Nate’s always been one of the realest O.Gs. I’m going for him, but he just didn’t look like himself.
“And then I went into the locker room later, I don’t know if he said this to the press, but he was injured. He had a pulled muscle in there. And I can tell, I said ‘Man, what’s wrong with you,’ because one of his pecs was smaller than the other. ‘Oh man, I got a f—ed up pinched nerve in my back.’”
Rampage says he respects how Diaz didn’t really discuss this more to the media after the fight.
“I respect that because I got an excuse with all my loses,” he said with a laugh. “You lose respect when you talk excuses, but yeah I got excuses for all my losses.”
Nate Diaz mentioned arm injury after Jake Paul loss
While it didn’t sound nearly as serious as what Rampage mentioned, the only injury Nate Diaz did mention to the press was how he hurt his arm.
“I’m not trying to make excuses, but about a month back I was trying to stay big and I hurt my arm a little bit. Wear and tear on my right arm if I was jabbing or doing a lot of stuff, so I would get inside and fight like a Mexican guy. Smother their punches and get in there and make every sparring session a brawl and did that in camp, and that’s how the fight went.
“I think I should have kept on the outside, circled, and did better stuff. I know I pissed Rich off, he don’t want me to say it but he wanted me to keep it on the outside and I should have. But it’s all good,” Diaz said.
Nate Diaz had millions of reasons not to pull out of the fight
“There’s no way I’m not going to show up for a fight because of something like that,” Diaz previously said at the post-fight press conference. “You’ve got to go regardless, no matter what.”
Regardless of injury, Diaz had several millions of reasons to push through with the fight. As Bloody Elbow reported first, Diaz earned “well into the eight figures” for what was by far a career-high payday for the longtime UFC superstar.
Unlike in UFC events, Diaz managed to secure a 50-50 cut on just about every revenue stream the high-profile boxing match generated. Diaz’s cut from event sponsors alone was reportedly seven figures already, with millions more from media rights, PPV and gate.
As Bloody Elbow previously noted, Nate Diaz’s biggest UFC payday was a little over $4 million for his rematch with Conor McGregor. That event broke records and drew far more than this Jake Paul fight, but Diaz earned multiples less, as UFC always keeps the lion’s share of the money.
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