Jake Paul’s MMA debut seems to come down to one thing: Whether or not Nate Diaz wants to face him in the PFL cage.
Paul defeated the former UFC star via unanimous decision in their August 2023 matchup in Dallas. Since then, Paul — who signed with the PFL for an eventual MMA debut — along with promotional brass have continued to challenge Diaz for a rematch in mixed martial arts.
During a special roundtable featuring Paul, Amanda Serrano and MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian, Paul and Serrano were asked when they would compete for the PFL.
“We want to, but our opponents don’t actually really want to,” Paul told MMA Fighting. “It’s funny that Nate Diaz is actually scared to fight me in MMA. The biggest payday of his life would be me and him in MMA. I’m ready.”
Paul recently defeated former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson via unanimous decision in a highly criticized, yet unbelievably lucrative main event bout at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas this past month. The bout was viewed on Netflix by over 100 million people during the first live sporting event ever for the streaming platform.
According to Bidarian, Paul would absolutely compete in MMA, but it would have to be the right opponent. Currently, Bidarian believes it is Diaz and nobody else that would take Paul’s focus off of the sweet science.
“Jake just put on the biggest boxing event in history,” Bidarian said. “If the right opponent, if Nate Diaz wants to fight, Jake has always said he wants to do it. But he’s very focused on boxing.”
After a clip from the MMA Fighting social media pages caught his attention, Diaz responded and accepted Paul’s challenge with some conditions.
Sign the contract Scary and not in 12 months from now and in a shitty organization Scary pic.twitter.com/jHlE30t9nx
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) December 14, 2024
“Sign the contract Scary and not in 12 months from now and in a shitty organization Scary,” Diaz said.
