Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz: Who is favored to win the highly anticipated boxing match?
CLEVELAND, OHIO: In their next boxing match, Jake Paul has been picked as the crowd favorite. Bets on the match show that most have backed Paul as the one to "destroy" UFC great Nate Diaz. Paul, a former YouTuber turned boxer, will face Diaz on August 5, looking to avenge his first boxing loss.
As Diaz makes his ring debut that night, bookmakers have made Paul the sizable favorite to win the bout. Randy Brown, a welterweight in the UFC, feels Diaz will be easily defeated even though some fans are skeptical of Paul's abilities due to his YouTuber past.
‘Jake Paul is a boxer by this point’
While talking to Inside Fighting, Brown said, “I think [Diaz] gets destroyed in a boxing match. Jake Paul is a boxer by this point. We have to give credit where credit is due and he’s a boxer. He might not be an extremely high-level boxer but at this point, he’s boxing primarily. That’s where he spends most of his time whereas a lot of MMA fighters, we have to split our time between so many different things.”
Diaz was well-known for his boxing and jiu-jitsu abilities during his 15 years competing in the UFC. Conor McGregor defeated the Irishman in their rematch later that year after the 38-year-old out-landed Conor in their initial encounter. Brown gave his reasoning for his belief that Diaz's MMA boxing prowess won't translate to the ring.
“I think Nate Diaz doesn’t have great boxing, I think he has great elements of boxing, I think there’s things that he incorporates well from boxing in his game and he has great drop punches because he carries his hands very high so there’s no tell and then he just drops them on you," he added.
‘It’s going to be a mismatch against Jake Paul’
Eddie Hearn, a boxing promoter, reiterated Brown's remarks and predicted that Paul will defeat the UFC icon in just four rounds. A recent video of Diaz hitting pads did not please Hearn, and after the video went viral online, many fans expressed their concern for the 38-year-old too.
Talking to The MMA Hour, Hearn said, “I watched clips of Nate Diaz hit pads and I was like [shocked]. You know that it’s going to be a mismatch against Jake Paul. It won't go four [rounds] unless it's all a bit of a bluff from Nate with what I saw. When you see people hit pads, you just know. I love Nate Diaz, I’ve only met him a couple times, what a gent, but for it to be a mismatch against Jake Paul?”
