By Matt Lieberman: The bigger & stronger cruiserweight Jake Paul (7-1, 4 KOs) had a tougher time than expected, defeating the grizzled old veteran ex-UFC fighter Nate Diaz (0-1) by a ten round unanimous decision in a fight that looked much closer than the scores handed down by the three judges on Saturday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
Jake, 26, looked powerful early, landing hard right hands and left hooks to the slow, plodding 38-year-old Diaz. However, Jake looked exhausted after dropping Diaz in the fifth.
Jake went for broke, unloading on the shelled-up Diaz and failing to finish him off. From that point on, Jake looked fatigued and found himself getting outworked by Diaz from rounds six through ten.
The scores:
- 97-92
- 98-91
- 98-91
There wouldn’t have been any argument from boxing fans if the contest had been scored as a draw because neither guy did enough to rate the victory.
Diaz’s had swelling around bother eyes by the end of the fight, but that’s natural for him, as he’s been in many fights during his career and has scar tissue.
Jake landed some huge shots in the first two rounds, connecting with head-snapping blows against the plodding Diaz. The fight seemed to change complexion in the third round, as Diaz was getting comfortable, letting his hands go and walking Jaake down.
What was interesting was the look of worry & panic in the eyes of Jake, as he was now the hunted, and he looked scared.
You could see that Jake thought he was going to walk through Diaz, and when he was still there after round two, he didn’t know what to do other than run, hold & load up on single shots, hoping to score a knockout.
In the fifth, Jake caught Nate with a perfect left hook to put him down on the canvas. When Nate got back to his feet, you could see that he was angry, as he fought tooth & nail for the remainder of the round, foiling Jake’s attempt at knocking him out.
In rounds six, seven, and right, Diaz’s combat experience showed through, as he looked calm under fire and came back with salvos, connecting to the head & body of Jake.
Diaz made Jake look like an amateur fighter, not a good one, and certainly not a future world champion. You could tell from watching the action that Diaz was cut from a different set of cloth than Jake, who does boxing as a hobby & makes side money.
In round ten, Jake went all out, tempting the tank to make sure that he finished strong. It was still a close round, but Jake did enough to edge it.
All credit to my team and my conditioning for beating a UFC legend,” said Paul after the fight. “I watched him on TV as a kid. I want to run it back in MMA.
“I’ll fight him in MMA – I’ll get a single leg and choke him out. I’ll fight anybody; I don’t give a f**k,” said Nate.