Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz Fight

Overview

Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz Fight refers to a boxing competition between influencer and content creator Jake Paul and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Nate Diaz in Dallas, Texas in August 2023. Paul won the bout by unanimous decision, but after emerging unscathed, several onlookers voiced suspicion that the bout was rigged in his favor.

Background

Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz was scheduled shortly after Paul's February 2023 defeat to Tommy Fury. ^[1] The bout marked Diaz's professional boxing debut. It took place on August 5th, 2023, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

Developments

Results

Paul defeated Diaz by unanimous decision after the match went all 10 rounds.^[2] On August 6th, 2023, CBS Sports posted a recap of the match to YouTube, which gained over 1 million views in one day (shown below).

Online Reactions

Accusations of Rigging

After the fight on August 5th, 2023, Paul anticipated some fans thinking it would be rigged, telling MMA Junkie, “They’ll say it’s rigged. They’ll say he got paid to take a dive because they won’t even believe it. I’m going to show them the impossible and prove to the kids out there that you can do anything if you’re crazy enough.” He also suggested he would do an MMA fight next.

Indeed, several on social media voiced suspicion that the fight was rigged, a claim that has dogged Paul's fights in the past. A key point of controversy was a moment midway through the fight when Paul knocked Diaz down. Multiple commenters suggested that the punch didn't look like it connected, and Diaz flopped.

For example, on August 6th, Twitter user @WillyWonkaXRP tweeted the clip and decried the fight as a "scam," gaining over 30 retweets and 170 likes in one day (shown below, top). Also that day, user @mmamarcuss pointed to a separate moment in the fight when Diaz appeared to double over in pain after a Jake Paul punch to his torso, suggesting Diaz was faking it (shown below, bottom).

He didn’t even land the punch 🥊 SCAM #DiazPaul pic.twitter.com/NLYYTYzrLF

— 🔥 BULL RUN WONKA 🔥 45k 👉 $XRP #XRPL $BTC #NFT (@WillyWonkaXRP) August 6, 2023

Nate Diaz faking Jake Paul’s body shot pic.twitter.com/JHVdFLI3Jz

— ᴍᴍᴀ ᴍᴀʀᴄᴜs 🏝️ (@mmamarcuss) August 6, 2023

Multiple commenters suggested it was suspicious that Paul looked unscathed after a 10-round boxing match, suggesting Diaz had intentionally pulled his punches to fix the fight.

On August 6th, user @ChandranTheMan^[3] implied the match wasn't "real" by noting Jake was less beat up than his brother Logan typically is after a WWE match, gaining over 460 retweets and 5,600 likes in two days (shown below).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References