Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz bout officially set for August

Announced on Wednesday, and after several months of speculation, UFC fan favorite Nate Diaz will make his professional boxing debut versus YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul on Saturday, August 5. The fight will be hosted in the Lone Star State, at Dallas’ American Airlines Center; DAZN has the broadcasting rights.

According to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, “The event will be a 50-50 collaboration between Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions and Diaz’s Real Fight Inc.” For Diaz, he is fighting under his promotion for the first time in his inaugural boxing match. It has been over a decade and a half since Diaz was last in a bout outside of UFC’s sanction.

Diaz and Paul are both mainstays at events throughout the boxing and MMA world, and have festered a mutual resentment for one another in recent years. Whether it is jaw-jacking from across the ring, backstage or on social media, these two simply do not like each other.

Paul (6-1 boxing record), who notably gained famed through his enormous YouTube following, has taken the fighting community by storm since brutally knocking out former NBA slam dunk champion Nate Robinson back in November of 2020. Since then, Paul has clashed with and put to sleep a couple MMA fighters in Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley, before eventually losing his most recent bout with boxer Tommy Fury via split decision. Paul is in the cruiserweight division, and stands at 6-foot-1 with a reach of 76 inches.

Diaz (35-13 MMA record), who originally rose through the ranks of bare knuckle MMA fighting, made his UFC debut back in 2007. Showcasing a lengthy and entertaining career in the octagon, Diaz’s southpaw street-fighting style combined with deadly Jiu-Jitsu skills has made him a household name (along with his brother, Nick). As the pride of Stockton, California, Diaz (a welterweight, these days) will see how his scrappiness translates to the to squared circle. He is only slightly shorter than Paul, standing at 6 feet (reach even at 76 inches).

At DraftKings Sportsbook, odds for Paul-Diaz have not been created just yet, but it won’t be long — check our boxing markets early & often!