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Nate Diaz and Jake Paul both behaved badly in the lead-up to the bout
Of course, Conor McGregor was following this weekend’s boxing bout between his old (and perhaps future) rival Nate Diaz and YouTube influencer Jake Paul.
Neither Jake Paul nor (especially) Nate Diaz covered themselves with glory with their conduct during the pre-fight build-up. Nate engaged in a street brawl in New Orleans a few weeks before the fight and then sprinkled his statements at the pre-fight presser with enough homophobic slurs to draw significant media attention.
Here’s what CNN reported about Diaz statements.
“Diaz was participating in a press conference before the fight, which is happening on Saturday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas when he was confronted by Betr’s Derek Sullivan.
“Diaz reacted angrily after Sullivan said he couldn’t wait to watch Paul knock Diaz out and invited Sullivan on the stage. Diaz used homophobic slurs to refer to both Sullivan and Paul during the verbal tirade that ensued.”
Outsports had more:
“Hey, bring this little b*tch up here,” Diaz said to Sullivan. “Get him the f**k out here. They are lacking respect, all the p*****s in your f****g faggot’s camp, motherf***r. That’s the problem… This guy is influencing the f*****g Island gay boys because they are mother f****s like you b*tch. You are the f*****g bad guy, and this little f**k right here needs his a** whipped.”
Diaz was suspended by the UFC for homophobic tweeting in 2013. He was unrepentant at the time.
Jake Paul lowered himself to Diaz’ level during a pre-fight interview with Ariel Helwani. More from Outsports:
“In the news conference, both fighters were asked by Helwani: ‘Gentlemen, every great story has a hero and a villain, in this situation, who is the good guy and who is actually the bad guy?’
“Diaz’s response? ‘Jake’s the gay guy.’
“Paul then said: ‘Yes sir, I’m going to grab your cheeks in the ring on Saturday night. Everybody look out, I’m grabbing his cheeks.’
“Not to be outdone in the homophobia department, Paul said he would sexually assault Diaz when he was asked a hypothetical.
“Q: What happens if the two of you meet on a dark street and there’s nobody around?
“Paul: ‘Imma bend him over and fuck him like a cowboy. Goddamn right.’
USA Today: ‘Boxing doesn’t need Nate Diaz’
Boxing writer Mike Freeman took umbrage and wrote it up for USA Today.
“…in a remarkably tone-deaf statement Tela Mange, spokesperson for the Texas Boxing Commission, told USA TODAY Sports by email that, “We do not regulate what the fighters say to each other or anyone else.”
“Boxing isn’t a place for saints. All sports and leagues have their goons. I mean, Deshaun Watson has a job. Boxing has had plenty of bad guys. I get that.
“But boxing is making a bad deal with the devil by embracing Diaz. If the sport thinks Diaz is a fix for its problems, that’s just dead wrong. Maybe because he’s a big name he provides a sugar high, a short-term spike, but as his use of a slur (twice) shows, he’s more likely to embarrass boxing than help save it.
“Again, boxing has long had its issues and bad guys. It doesn’t need another one. It especially doesn’t need one who has twice insulted an entire community of people and hasn’t learned any lessons.
“Boxing doesn’t need Nate Diaz.”
Conor McGregor takes to Twitter and says ‘hold my beer’
Conor McGregor watchers had to know he wasn’t going to let this massive bout between his former UFC rival Nate Diaz and Jake Paul go unremarked.
Initially Conor limited himself to bagging on Nate’s performance in the fight. He tweeted and deleted but MMA Junkie grabbed them screenshots.
Then McGregor turned his attention to Jake Paul with another slur-filled (and since-deleted) tweet.
Jake Paul responds with advice for McGregor
“Buddy you need to get into rehab and then USADA. Until then shut the f*ck up. Floyd toyed with you. Dustin chinned you up. Khabib and Nate choked you out. And I would put you in the coffin for good even as juiced up as you are,” Paul tweeted.
Since Conor deleted the Tweet Paul was responding to, here it is.
Conor brought a new slur in for his reply.
Jake had an answer for that.
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