UFC President Dana White has revealed why Jake Paul won’t be squaring off with Nate Diaz this summer, but admits the fight could happen later down the line.
Before it was confirmed that Jake Paul would be fighting Tommy Fury on August 6, plenty of fighters from across boxing and MMA threw their hat into the ring and wanted to challenge Jake.
That lengthy list of challengers included the UFC’s Nate Diaz, who took to Twitter to ask for his release from the MMA promotion so that he could fight Jake. Though, that clearly hasn’t happened seeing as Jake is fighting Tommy and not Nate.
Even still, it is a fight that has plenty of interest, given Jake and the Stockton native have traded plenty of verbal jabs over the years. And Dana White believes it may happen at some point, just not any time soon.
The UFC President appeared on Jim Rome’s ‘Rome’ talk show to preview UFC 276, when he was asked about the status of Nate and whether or not he’d be getting his release to fight Jake.
“Listen, he’s (Nate) got one more fight with us and then he can go do whatever he wants to do,” White said, before admitting he’d have “no idea” as to how Jake vs Nate would play out inside the boxing ring.
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“I have no idea. I could care less, to be honest with you. I don’t (care),” he added, before noting he understands why Nate is interested in fighting Jake. Though, the UFC boss expects Diaz to fulfill his obligations and have one final fight in the Octagon.
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Seeing as White expects Diaz to fight in the UFC one time before potentially moving on to Jake, he can likely be ruled out as a potential replacement should Tommy Fury back out once again.
If Jake wins, and Nate fights shortly after, the timelines could match up for a boxing fight between them before the end of the year. Though, we’ll just have to wait and see.