Olympic medalist Esquiva Falcao criticized UFC veteran Nate Diaz‘s boxing skills and predicted a tough match for him against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, while dismissing claims from Diaz’s teammate about him losing during a sparring session.
Olympic medalist Esquiva Falcao has reiterated his earlier statements criticizing Nate Diaz’s boxing abilities. Falcao predicts a dismal performance for the UFC veteran in the upcoming Saturday match against Jake Paul, a YouTuber turned amateur boxer, in Dallas. Falcao’s initial claims followed a sparring session with Diaz in June last year, where he referred to Diaz as “overweight” and likened his performance to someone who looked like he was dying. His remarks were met with retaliation from Chris Avila, Diaz’s teammate, who accused Falcao of getting badly beaten in the sparring session.
Falcao clarified to media that in posting the video of his match with Diaz, he did not intend to criticize the MMA veteran. Instead, he explained that his objective was to answer fan queries about Diaz’s boxing skills. Falcao was vocally critical about Diaz’s boxing, complimenting him as a good fighter and a warrior, but emphasized that boxing was simply not his arena. According to him, Diaz would lose in a boxing tournament based on the strength of his opponent despite his heart and inclination for brawling.
Diaz is due to make his professional boxing debut on Saturday following an extensive career in MMA. Paul, who will oppose him, seeks to recover from his first boxing loss against Tommy Fury. Paul had previously been victorious over other boxers including Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, and Ben Askren. Falcao emphasized Paul’s strengths, pointing out his punching power and track record of defeating ex-UFC fighters. Despite Diaz’s ability to withstand a beating, Falcao anticipates that Jake Paul will emerge the victor due to Diaz’s low guard and over-reliance on his chin and punching prowess.
Falcao also addressed the sparring session with Avila, who claimed that the Olympic medalist lost every round. Falcao responded with a rhetorical question suggesting that if Avila’s claims were true, he would be an Olympic medalist and world champion in boxing. Falcao was insistent that in boxing, Avila was not a match for him, while acknowledging that his skills in jiu-jitsu were not as proficient. According to him, the rhythm in boxing is different, and he needed to go easy on Avila to complete the rounds of sparring.