Nate Diaz had a $10 million offer to rematch Jake Paul in MMA.
Unfortunately, the former UFC welterweight headliner turned it down, according to “The Problem Child.” Perhaps the boxing match they had back in August — which ended in favor of the blonde bomber — had Diaz second-guessing his abilities.
“We’re at the drawing board right now. Nate Diaz ducked the $10 million offer, so he’s not the badass that everyone said he was,” Paul told TMZ Sports. “I wanted to fight him in MMA and do something that no boxer has really ever done, which is, in the prime of their career, go over to MMA. MMA fighters have gone over to boxing, but I want to go over to MMA and Nate Diaz ducked the offer.”
Paul, 26, is currently signed to PFL MMA and like former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, has a contract clause that allows him to box. Diaz, 38, recently launched his own combat sports league called Real Fight, Inc., but has yet to stage his first event.
“With those guys, I don’t know if they have reason,” Paul said. “I don’t even know if they think. There wasn’t a transparent reason. I think it was just something that he realized there’s a lot of risk for him. If I beat him in MMA — which I just dog-walked him in the boxing ring, made it look easy, and if I beat him in MMA, I take his legendary status. So I don’t know if he was like, maybe the risk of this isn’t good enough for the $10 million.”
No word yet on when or where Paul will make his MMA debut.