Jake Paul says Nate Diaz has been all bark, no bite in leadup to fight

Diaz was almost non-responsive to Paul’s shenanigans during their first pre-fight press conference in early May and the 38-year-old Stockton native has remained rather quiet during his training camp for the Aug. 5 fight — a stark contrast to the garish persona Diaz typically displayed during the buildup to his fights in the UFC.

In fact, Diaz engaged in more expletive-laden rants and took more personal shots at Paul before he agreed to fight the social media star than he has since the bout was scheduled. However, Diaz has taken a more nose-to-the-grindstone approach to this fight camp than he did in the UFC, sparring with other professional boxers to fine-tune his striking.

While the Paul versus Diaz fight will likely do solid pay-per-view numbers, Paul debunked any speculation that he was worried Diaz wasn’t doing his part to drive ticket sales, leading many to believe his disappointment in Diaz’s unwillingness to engage in any form of smack talk is purely about gamesmanship.

“This is the most amount of interest we’ve had in terms of ticket sales, live gate,” Paul said. “We’re pretty much all sold out. The highest average ticket prices for any of my fights. The first time my opponent had this much traction on social media in terms of the posts he’s making about it. So I think it can exceed expectations. I would be happy with 400,000 or 500,000 (pay-per-view buys). But I’m also coming off of selling 830,000 with Tommy (Fury). So it could be even bigger. Nate Diaz is a bigger star than Tommy Fury. He has more experience in this game. Has sold millions of PPVs throughout his career. So it could shock us all.”