Nate Diaz ‘looked like he was dying’ in training for Jake Paul combat, sparring partner says

An ‘overweight’ Nate Diaz apparently struggled via 12 rounds of boxing training this week, because the UFC icon continued his preparation for a combat with Jake Paul in August.

Diaz, 38, will face the YouTuber, 26, in Dallas this summer time, because the blended martial arts star makes his skilled boxing debut.

The combat will happen 11 months after Diaz rounded out his UFC stint with a submission win towards Tony Ferguson. Paul, in the meantime, final fought in February, taking up Tommy Fury and struggling the primary loss of a professional boxing profession in which he has gone 6-1 – with wins towards ex-UFC champions Tyron Woodley and Anderson Silva, amongst others.

Esquiva Falcao sparred with Diaz on Thursday (15 June), filming an interplay between the pair in the aftermath of their training session, earlier than turning to the digital camera to say: “At first I thought he was tired, and in the end it looked like he was dying.

“His fighting style is crazy. You look at him and say, ‘Oh, he’s tired,’ and then we started sparring. Robert [Garcia, coach] told me in the second round, ‘He’s tired already, hold back a little bit and keep the rhythm so he does at least 10 rounds.’

“I held back and kept boxing, and we did 12 rounds. He was tired but taking punches and throwing, too. [He] is bad, [he] is bad, but since he’s too heavy – he’s overweight, probably around 220lbs or more – and I’m the only big guy in the gym, I had to do it. But I liked doing it.”

Diaz and Paul had been initially due for an eight-round contest, however the Americans will now combat for a most of 10 rounds, Paul stated this week. That is the results of a request by Diaz, in keeping with the YouTube star.

As nicely as holding wins towards Woodley (one on factors and one through knockout) and Silva, Paul has knocked out ex-MMA champion Ben Askren, who completed his blended martial arts profession with a spell in the UFC.

Click right here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the most recent sports activities movies.