John McCarthy claims Nate Diaz vs. Jake Paul is a gross mismatch
'Big' John McCarthy believes that a potential boxing match between Nate Diaz (0-0 boxing) and Jake Paul (6-0 boxing) would be a gross mismatch. The 25-year-old Paul is coming off a unanimous decision win over the 47-year-old Anderson Silva, an MMA great and former UFC middleweight (185-pound) champion. Their catchweight (187-pound) professional boxing bout transpired on October 29.
Nate Diaz was present at the Paul vs. Silva boxing event. The 37-year-old former UFC star slapped a member of Paul's entourage backstage. Furthermore, members of team Diaz and team Paul hurled projectiles at one another during another backstage altercation.
Jake Paul subsequently challenged Nate Diaz to face him in a professional boxing match next rather than clashing in a street fight scenario. Diaz, a lightweight (155-pound) and welterweight (170-pound) MMA veteran, is regarded as a bona fide combat sports megastar. Unsurprisingly, a potential Diaz-Paul boxing match has been a hot-button topic among fight fans for quite some time.
In a video posted to the Weighing In Xtra YouTube channel, former MMA referee John McCarthy and former UFC lightweight Josh Thomson claimed that Diaz would lose to Paul in a possible boxing bout. McCarthy stated:
"You've gotta give it up for Jake. He can box. We've said it from the beginning. Look, he can box, and he is getting better. He's much better now than he was a year ago. And that's saying a lot because that's saying that he's putting in the time, he is working on his craft. I look at him [Paul] against Nate Diaz, and he's too big for Nate -- Too fast, too big; that's not a good fight for Nate."
Josh Thomson then chimed in and agreed with John McCarthy's take. Thomson opined that the much-discussed boxing match against Paul would be "a horrible fight for Nate."
Watch McCarthy discuss the topic at 2:20 in the video below:
Nate Diaz casts doubt on the legitimacy of Jake Paul's win over Anderson Silva
Many in the combat sports community, including John McCarthy and Josh Thomson, have suggested that a Paul-Diaz boxing matchup would likely garner huge paydays for all parties involved.
While it's believed that the fight could come to fruition soon, Nate Diaz has cast doubt on Paul's win over Silva and on the YouTuber-turned-professional boxer's boxing career as a whole.
Following Paul's victory, Diaz posted a tweet hinting that the fight may have been rigged and that Silva was on 'The Problem Child's' "payroll." The tweet also featured a video of late hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur talking about how one shouldn't "support the phonies." Diaz jibed at both Paul and 'The Spider' in his tweet. The Stockton native wrote:
"Your all on payroll"