Jake Paul has been told that Nate Diaz could 'duck' a fight with him following his recent win against Anderson Silva.
YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, 25, picked up his sixth professional win this past weekend by dropping UFC legend Silva on the way to a points victory over him. Straight after the win, Paul named Diaz and undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez as potential opponents for his next fight.
Diaz, 37, was in attendance at the Desert Diamond Arena in Arizona for Paul's fight to watch his pal Chris Avila on the undercard as he spoiled the pro debut of YouTube star 'Doctor Mike' Varshavski. In character of the former UFC star, Diaz was booted out of the arena before the main event after trying to enter Paul's changing room and causing a fracas with a member of his team backstage.
Top UFC bantamweight Sean O'Malley thinks Diaz could shy away from taking a fight with Paul following his impressive win over Silva, as he said on The MMA Hour : "I always wanna see the biggest fights. Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz is the biggest fight. Jake, I think wants to be taken more serious and fight a real boxer boxer and go after a belt.
"I think he might as well fight Nate Diaz. I don't know if Nate takes that fight. Nate might've seen Jake look good. It's not like Nate probably looked at him and thought, 'oh, I could go in there and just whoop him.' so that may be a fight that Nate doesn't even really take.
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"I mean there's only one way to see it. If you'd asked me, 'do you think Jake beats Anderson?' I would say the same thing there's only one way to know, they got to go out there and fight. I don't know if Jake beats Nate. What he showed versus Anderson, there's a very good chance, so I think it would be an epic fight." Paul's win against Silva was arguably the most impressive of his newfound boxing career, against his toughest challenger to date.
Diaz has been backed to cash-in for a big money fight against Paul since parting ways with the UFC following his submission win against Tony Ferguson in September. The 37-year-old had been trying to book a fight all year and is now a free agent following his first win in three years, but the exclusivity period of his UFC deal means he will likely be unable to negotiate a fight against Paul until the start of next year.
