Jake Paul won a unanimous ten-round decision on Saturday night against former UFC fighter Nate Diaz in Dallas at the American Airlines Arena. His brother Logan Paul was in the audience after defeating Ricochet in the first bout at WWE SummerSlam at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, earlier that day.
Many considered the weekend Logan Combat Sports Takeover since the two brothers had combative performances; however, one was a “real” boxing match, and the other was a contrived wrestling spectacle.
Still, both “fighters” are stuck in the same position of gimmickry over seriousness, although it delivers to their bottom line.
As Unreal As It Gets
Jake Paul wants to be considered an actual boxer. Since his loss to Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia, he has been on a mission for legitimacy in the boxing business. However, all his wins come from former MMA fighters turned boxers late in their career. Saturday night’s win was no different as the now 7-1 boxer welcomed Nate Diaz into the boxing world.
From the outset of the promotion, Diaz seemed like a fish out of water, unwilling to engage in the prefight shenanigans that accompany any Jake Paul boxing bonanza—instead, Diaz, who had a skirmish with Paul’s camp backstage at his fight vs. Anderson Silva in 2022, decided to play coy with the media and sidestep the trash talk.
But that is the gimmick that covers the truth about any Jake Paul fight: the event hinges on the fringes, meaning it is a sideshow created to look like a main event. The fight hype helps build the momentum of a straw man main draw peppered with actual fights and other happenstance “super fights.”
While Paul came out hard in round one and floored Diaz in round five en route to a unanimous decision that saw a pro-Diaz crowd partially bored and otherwise enthralled with the spectacle, other boxing matches delivered.
New Rules
Amanda Serrano successfully defended her undisputed title against boxing veteran Heather Hardy in a barnburner co-main event. In their super lightweight bout, Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions prospect, Ashton “H20” Sylve, outclassed William Silva via a fourth-round KO.
For Paul, to erase his last fight’s loss, he rode in on a military-issued tank and walked to the ring with famous rap artist Lil’ Durk to apply a high gloss over the mediocre boxing abilities of both he and Diaz.
Although seasoned as a mixed martial artist, Diaz couldn’t catch up to Paul’s limited experience. For the Paul combat sports wave to continue to blaze a unique path in boxing, he must avoid real boxers at all costs. Perhaps that’s why, instead of complaining when Diaz put him in a guillotine choke at the end of the fight, he said he’d like to rematch Diaz in the cage during an MMA event.
After all, the sideshow must go on.
