Jake Paul put his support behind Nate Diaz's Twitter campaign to get out of his "hostage" UFC contract by liking his tweet with the trending hashtag #FreeNateDiaz.
Paul has been angling for a fight with Diaz for the past year, but has been unable to enter into serious negotiations due to his exclusive UFC deal. Diaz has just one fight left on his contract, but the promotion have been dragging their heels on making that a reality on any of their upcoming events.
Diaz insists that he is fit and ready to go, and will even take an unfavourable match-up against the likes of Khamzat Chimaev in order to get out of his contract. It is expected that he would face Paul in a boxing match if he were allowed out of his deal, and he says that he would also like to compete in other sports like jiu-jitsu and kickboxing.
During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on a special edition of The MMA Hour , the welterweight contender began a new hashtag in an effort to get out of his contract, telling fans to tweet out #FreeNateDiaz. And Paul showed his support subtly, joining the tens of thousands who liked his rival's tweet.
Paul has offered to face Diaz in the UFC in order to help him get out of his deal, telling Helwani on a previous episode of the show : "The ball is in Dana's court. I said that I would fight Nate Diaz in the UFC for free. All Dana White has to do is raise the fighter minimum from $12,000 to $50,000 and give the fighters long-term healthcare.
"Then I'll fight Nate Diaz for free as his last fight under UFC contract. I made that offer to no avail, but I think that fight could happen eventually once he gets out of his UFC contract I'd love to box him."
And Diaz has told of how he feels he is being held hostage by the promotion. He was always beloved by MMA fans for his all-action style, but he shot to mainstream fame with a win over Conor McGregor at the start of 2016 in a short-notice fight.
But he has been unable to capitalise on that victory and fame to its fullest, fighting just four times since. He was beaten in their rematch before taking three years out of the cage and returning to a win over Anthony Pettis and losses to Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards, both of whom ended up fighting for world titles.
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"I've been asking for fights since whenever, I asked for a lot of fights," Diaz said. "I asked for Vicente Luque, I asked for Tony Ferguson, I asked for about four or five people and there was no go on their side.
"Then they finally offered me the Khamzat fight and I gave a little 'what the f***?' But finally I was like 'why not? Let's just get it done with and over with' so I asked for that fight.
"Then all kind of excuses started happening - I wanted December, January, I wanted March, I wanted all of these dates and then nothing.
"I've been trying to get this show on the road but they don't want me out of contract. They're keeping me in and holding me hostage, but I want out, that's my main objective here."
