Jake Paul jokingly faced off with a clapping toy-monkey as he mocked rival Nate Diaz at their launch press conference.
YouTube star Paul suffered a first defeat of his short boxing career in February losing on a narrow split decision to Tommy Fury, but he has since announced he will fight ex-UFC star Diaz. The 'Problem Child' is extremely confident he can return to winning column against the 38-year-old who will be making his debut in the squared circle.
The pair came face-to-face for the first time at a launch press conference, where there were a whole host of tense moments including when the pair started shadow-boxing at the final face-off. However during the media part of the conference, Paul decided to brandish a toy monkey which clapped when his rival made a KO prediction.
He then joked: "I think this is what is going on in Nate's brain." Diaz looked over at his rival who was grinning from ear-to-ear while the monkey clapped repetitively, before he then faced off with the monkey to mock their later nose-to-nose encounter in the final part of the press conference.
There was significant chaos throughout the press conference with Diaz left unhappy on multiple occasions at the event's organisation, which even saw him go to the bathroom for several minutes. When the pair were encouraged to talk about the fight, Paul surprisingly gave his rival respect despite vowing to bring an abrupt halt to their showdown.
"This is a big fight," he said. "This is a fight that I've wanted for a long time. [Nate] got out of his UFC contract and this is probably the biggest fight of the year, only topping me versus Tommy. I want to make big events, big fights happen and strike while the iron's hot. He was a free agent. Let's run it. Make it happen. Settle the s**t talk. I'm ready for war.
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"I'm excited to be here. Thank you for having me out, Dallas. I love y'all and I'm going to do what Conor McGregor couldn't do, and I'm gonna knock this man out. Obviously, he's a legend in the game and I'm excited to be fighting him. Twelve years later, you know, from the couch in Ohio to here in Dallas, Texas.”
Diaz was equally respectful at times and suggested that his rival was having a positive influence on the sport despite their tense face-off. He added: "He's doing a good job. He's been punished like he said. As far as the fighter, he's young, he's motivated. He's working hard. I can see that. I'm sure everybody can see that. That’s kind of motherf****r’s unstoppable.
"That’s why I wanted to fight Conor [McGregor] and the [reason] I took time off from my fights, when I was fighting was because I wanted top guy and they were trying to give me some f***ing lame a** motherf****r. [I want to fight the] best of the best and I think you did a great job and [I want] motherf****rs know that I do a great job too.”
