Nate Diaz's old UFC rival Jorge Masvidal has backed him to "smoke" Jake Paul in their upcoming boxing match.
Diaz, 38, is scheduled to make his professional boxing debut against Paul, 26, on August 5 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. Diaz parted ways with the UFC last September after tapping out Tony Ferguson in his final fight for the promotion and he now looks to hand Paul his second defeat after the YouTuber-turned-boxer's loss to Tommy Fury in February.
Masvidal, who won the BMF title by stopping Diaz at UFC 244 in November 2019, thinks his former opponent's experience will get him the win against Paul. "It’s just the time of it. Jake’s obviously a lot younger than Nate. If Nate’s in his prime, I think he smokes Jake. But Nate’s been out of it for a while. I don’t know what kind of shape his lifestyle is like outside a serious training camp," he told MMAJunkie.
"He hasn’t been in a training camp in a while, so I don’t know. I think the odds are a lot on him. Jake’s been competing and Jake’s naturally a lot bigger, but all that being said, I think Nate just finds a way to tough-guy it out and just beat up Jake and break him down. I think Jake will run a lot.”
Who wins on August 5 - Jake Paul or Nate Diaz? Let us know your prediction in the comments section below
Mirror Fighting understands both Paul and Diaz will undergo strict VADA [Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency] drug testing for their upcoming fight after a heated back-and-forth about drug use. Diaz accused Paul of taking steroids whilst requesting for their fight to be 12 rounds instead of eight, tweeting: "Ur [sic] on steroids so let’s put that s*** to work."
Paul then responded to his rival: "You speaking to me Nathan? We haven’t forgotten that you tested positive for steroids. You and your boyfriend Conor [McGregor] are juice heads. Let’s do 15 rounds and see how good those cannabis corroded lungs are. VADA going to be coming to Stockton to slap you up."
Neither Paul or Diaz have ever tested positive for steroids during their fighting careers. Diaz had an atypical finding in an out-of-competition USADA test before his fight against Masvidal for traces of LGD-4033 [Ligandrol], a selective androgen receptor modulator [SARM].
The "double-digit picograms" of the substance found in Diaz's system were said to have likely come as a result of a contaminated supplement. Jeff Novitzky, UFC VP of Athlete Health and Performance, said of the finding: "It is as rock solid evidence as I’ve ever seen in the history of my anti-doping career when it comes to a contaminant. The guy did nothing wrong.”
