Jake Paul succeeded in stunning the MMA community once again, earlier today when he announced his lucrative partnership with PFL.
While PFL had expressed interest in Paul previously, considering the MMA pay model there were very few people who thought the offer had credence – but apparently PFL was more than willing to negotiate.
Paul will compete in a new division known as Super Fight, with events on pay-per-view.
Paul and his business partner (former UFC CFO) Nakisa Bidarian now own an equity share of the PFL.
Details of Paul’s deal were not disclosed. Paul’s official role is the “head of fighter advocacy” indicating that a big part of his new role will be sharing about PFL to the millions of his followers.
And according to the same source, Paul is targeting a Super division debut against Nate Diaz – after the two box.
“I would beat Nate Diaz up in a M.M.A. fight,” Paul said, adding an expletive. “There’s nothing he could do. To me, I’ve always felt like I’ve jumped in the deep end, even in boxing, maybe besides, like, Ben Askren.”
“The biggest thing for me would be getting the kicks down,” Paul said. “But I’m going to start now, moving forward with some extra time I have within this camp. I’m going to put in some extra time, rolling around doing some jujitsu and learning some kicks.”
Same source goes on to say:
“Paul still wants to fight Diaz in 2023, he said, but in a two-fight deal where they would fight in a boxing match first and then compete in the Super Fight division in M.M.A. about four to six months later. ”
Nate Diaz shared snapshots of him training boxing 24 hours ago captioned “Trained to GO”.
Paul is reportedly in a camp to box against an unknown opponent. A February date was hinted at by his boxing coach BJ Flores.
Diaz is a free agent but is still on good terms with UFC. Former MIddleweight champion Michael Bisping cautioned Diaz against taking on Paul due to perceived size advantage:
“The only knockout that he got was against Rory Markham in 2010.” He said.
“Listen, with boxing gloves on, I don’t think it will be a good idea for Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz was a tremendous mixed martial artist. He beat some phenomenal people, had a tremendous career. He lost some fights and he won a lot of fights.”
“The jiu-jitsu would be gone, the kicking game is gone, the general craftsmanship and the gameplans and the adversity of attacks, punches, kicks, knees, elbows, strangles, chokeholds, triangles, takedowns, you name it.”
He continued. “That’s what Diaz could do. Those are the advantages he’d have over a Jake Paul.”
Diaz didn’t take too kindly to these claims and hit back at Bisping posting on social media:
Diaz posted the image of Bisping being KO’d by his former rival Dan Henderson at UFC 100, whilst writing: “The only fight I ever saw by this goofy f*****. Don’t hate me cause you ain’t me MB.”
Diaz wound up deleting the tweet later.