Nate Diaz will have to lose a huge amount of weight in less than two months for his fight against Jake Paul, according to one of his sparring partners.
Diaz makes his boxing debut against Paul in Dallas, Texas on August 5. The UFC legend recently sparred with unbeaten professional boxer and Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcao, who was impressed with Diaz's skills but also surprised at how big he was.
“He is heavy now, he’s overweight," Falcao said of Diaz. "He must weigh about 220 pounds now or more. So the only big guy here at the gym is me. So I ended up having to spar him. I enjoyed doing it though. I took it down a notch and we were just boxing. We ended up going for 12 rounds, even though he was tired. He was landing shots and eating a lot of shots too. It’s bad."
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Falcao won silver at the 2012 London Games and turned professional two years after. The Brazilian has since racked up a flawless record of 30-0 with 20 of his wins coming by knockout. Falcao is currently preparing for a fight of his own as he takes on Vincenzo Gualtieri for the vacant middleweight world title in July.
If Falcao's assumptions about Diaz's weight are accurate, it would make him heavier than former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has been for several of his world title fights. 'The Bronze Bomber' has bulked up in recent years, but weighed considerably less for his title fights against the likes of Luis Ortiz and Bermane Stiverne.
Diaz switched between 155lb and 170lb for the entirety of his UFC career and his fight against Paul will take place at 185lb. The 38-year-old proposed for the fight to be changed from eight rounds to 10 and Paul agreed to the rule change, but Diaz then backed down from the extension by tweeting: "I’m good with 8".
The UFC legend will prepare for the fight by training with former world champion, who has backed his old sparring partner to surprise a lot of fans in the fight. "Not to go too deep into it, but he’s reached out and we’re gonna connect at a certain point when the fight is getting close. It’s gonna be a tougher fight than people realise because Nate’s going to keep coming," he said on The MMA Hour.
