Jake Paul, Nate Diaz Pre-Fight Face-Off Leads to Brawl

The mounting tension between Nate Diaz and Jake Paul led to a stunning brawl between their fight camps on Thursday as tempers continued to flare ahead of Saturday’s anticipated showdown.

The chaotic scene unfolded after Paul, 26, and Diaz, 38, took center stage for their final pre-fight press conference, where the fierce rivals talked more smack in preparation for their boxing match on Aug. 5

Towards the end of the presser, Diaz and Paul stood at a distance and began chirping while being surrounded by a crowd of people that included their management, training staff and security teams. The ex-UFC star then began talking to Paul’s manager and former UFC CFO Nakisa Bidarian before approaching him on his way off-stage.

After Diaz and Bidarian’s short faceoff, a member of Paul’s security team pushed a member of Diaz’s team, igniting a melee that saw several punches thrown as both camps needed to be separated. Neither Diaz or Paul were involved in the scuffle.

Later in the day, Paul addressed the brawl on Twitter in a series of tweets, the first of which claimed Diaz’s team accused his of assault.

The rising boxing star disputed the claim by saying Diaz’s associate swung first and started the brawl, adding that same associate had to get stitches afterwards. Paul also also claimed Diaz threatened Bidarian, the co-founder of Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, while calling back to his pre-fight guarantee of a knockout victory.

Wrote Paul, “You threatened MVPs co-founder who has been a partner to you and your team every step of the way? He’s put your best friend on over and over again. Stupid. Then your team wants to swing on us…so you got served a three piece and a biscuit. Punk. It’s time for goodnight.”

Needless to say, while Diaz and Paul didn’t need to add more fuel to the fire, Thursday’s fireworks made for an explosive precursor to the weekend.

After months of back and forth, Paul (6–1) will look to settle the score and make another statement to his critics against Diaz, who will be making his boxing debut in Dallas.