Jake Paul nearly fulfilled his prediction of a fifth-round knockout against Nate Diaz in their boxing match, having landed a clean left hook in Round 5 that almost broke Diaz’s round-ending resistance, while substantially outscored Diaz in terms of punches thrown, albeit with one knockdown only.
Before their showdown on Saturday, Jake Paul confidently prophesied a fifth-round knockout over Nate Diaz. As the fight unveiled, his audacious prediction came dangerously close to fruition. After a high-octane start by the dynamic 26-year-old boxer, Diaz found himself in a precarious position early on. Paul landed a pristine left hook in Round 5, causing Diaz to tumble face-first onto the canvas. The overwhelming force nearly propelled Diaz out of the ring, but he managed to find his footing and survived until the end of the round.
During a post-battle press conference, Paul gave an insight into his battle strategy: “My motor was running hot and I was punching him hard and hard and hard, and he wasn’t going down,” he said. “He was standing there. So, I didn’t want to burn out and let him catch a win and come back with something.” Paul admitted his strategy was one of patience, intelligence, and pursuit of the ‘kill’. “But at the end of the day,” he added, “he withstood a bunch of big, big, big punches.”
The fight was a quantitative triumph for Paul who outdid Diaz in the total punches, 174 to 143. This statistic is noteworthy considering Diaz’s history as a volume striker and his still standing record in a three-round UFC fight for landing 238 significant strikes against Donald Cerrone. Despite executing power punches and aiming for a finishing blow, Paul managed to connect with only one knockdown which also seemed to surprise him. “I don’t know how he survived the first round, but he’s a dog and I walked the dog,” he said. “For sure [he felt my power], I could see it the whole fight. In the first round, I saw his eyes light up and he was like, ‘OK, they talk about this kid’s power, but when you feel it, it’s different.'”
There was no shortage of verbal barbs exchanged during the match, which both fighters evidently relished. “We were talking to each other the whole fight,” said Paul. “He was saying words that I can’t repeat, but I was like, ‘Where’s all that talk now? Gotcha! Shut up!’ It was fun.” The prospects of a rematch in boxing with Tommy Fury, who gave him his solitary defeat in a split decision in February, or in MMA with Diaz are on the cards for Paul. However, the name of UFC superstar Conor McGregor, who had commented via social media on Diaz’s clash with Paul, seemed to have fallen from Paul’s radar. Paul brushed it off saying, “I don’t care about that guy, He needs to go to rehab. I want Nate in MMA. I want more professional boxers and I want Canelo [Alvarez].”