Diaz isn’t scrimping on the cardio work has his big money crossover fight with Jake Paul in Texas approaches quickly.
No one knows what to expect from Nate Diaz when he steps into the boxing ring on August 5th against Jake Paul. We’ve seen Diaz fight plenty of times in the cage, but this will be the first time he boxes in a pro fight. There’s been a lot of conflicting information on how he’s looked in sparring sessions, but one thing is for sure: he’ll be bringing that key Diaz cardio with him into the 10 round fight.
The Diaz brothers have a signature fight style, one that’s built around endless cardio. Nick and Nate get that through a love of triathlon competition, and on a new episode of The Pat McAfee show Nate revealed he has two triathlons lined up in the coming month.
“I got a race this weekend and next weekend also,” Nate said. “This one’s going to be in a lake so that’s good. Those are my favorite races, I never did [Escape From] Alcatraz though, my brother did Alcatraz. I would have done that one, but we always race all year long, and about a week or two out [from a fight] I try not to do too big of races. So every time he did Alcatraz, I was about two weeks out from a fight so I’d always miss that race.”
“But I’ve done other stuff, I did the Big Kahuna half-Ironman in Santa Cruz. Out there you swim around the pier. The whole time you’re swimming you hear seals and s—, it’s the scariest thing ever. I hate those. I hate ocean swims. All the other racers love that s—. I dunno if they like the thrill of it? But every time we would be on the beach getting ready to go in the morning, my brother would be all pumped up. I’d be like ‘Motherf—er, I’m only doing this because of you, and now I’m going to get eaten by a shark.’”
“I hate ocean swims but I’ve done a bunch of them,” Diaz continued. “Snd now that my brother hasn’t been competing as much, I haven’t been dragged into too many of the ocean ones. I still will do ‘em but, I like to avoid them the best I can. I’ve never done an Ironman, my brother did Ironman. But I’ve done six half Ironmans. The halfs are a mile swim, fifty six mile bike ride, and a thirteen mile run.”
Cardio is the 38-year-old Diaz’s not-so-secret weapon against the 26-year-old Jake Paul. Paul is bigger and younger, but he struggled to keep up with Tyson Fury’s little brother Tommy in his last novelty boxing bout, losing a split decision. It will be interesting to see what happens when the fight reaches the later rounds, especially considering the bout is now 10 rounds instead of 8. If — and this is a larger ‘if’ than many MMA fans like to admit — it makes it to the later rounds at all.