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Youtube star turned boxer, Jake Paul, had been predicting a fifth round knockout victory over MMA veteran Nate Diaz.
He almost got there, after catching Diaz with a temple shot and dropping him down in the fifth. Diaz was hurt, and Paul momentarily went for the kill, but then he took his foot off the gas.
The fight would continue, with Diaz weathering the storm, and Paul ultimately won a ten round unanimous decision.
Paul explains that he was conserving energy during the fifth, because he was cautious of overextending himself and potentially gassing out down the stretch.
“My motor was running hot and I was punching him hard and hard and hard, and he wasn’t going down. He was standing there. So I didn’t want to burn out and let him catch a win and come back with something. So I was being patient, being smart, and was looking for the kill. But at the end of the day, he withstood a bunch of big, big, big punches,” Paul said.
“I don’t know how he survived the first round, but he’s a dog and I walked the dog. For sure [he could feel my power], I could see it the whole fight. In the first round, I seen his eyes light up and he was like, ‘OK, they talk about this kid’s power, but when you feel it, it’s different.’”
Diaz was using a lot of his trademark antics during the fight – and there was plenty of trashtalking.
“We were talking to each other the whole fight,” Paul said. “He was saying words that I can’t repeat, but I was like, ‘Where’s all that talk now? Gotcha! Shut up!’ It was fun.
“When you’re in there with another dog, you can sense it and it just makes the sport more fun. This fight was probably the most memorable yet.”