Jake Paul has made some big changes to his camp leading into his next big fight against Nate Diaz on Aug. 5, 2023.
“The Problem Child” had his perfect professional boxing record spoiled by Tommy Fury back in February, dropping the YouTuber-turned boxer to 6-1. While he says he intends to rematch Fury down the line, he’s turned his attention toward another former UFC fighter in Diaz … and closing the holes that loss revealed.
Paul discussed the changes during a Tuesday night press conference promoting the Texas showdown with Diaz (watch it here).
“I learned more about myself in the loss than I have in any of the wins,” he said (via MMA Fighting). “It’s made me stronger mentally in life, in everything that I’m doing, and it’s almost like a relief in a sense. I never wanted to lose but now that it’s out of the way, I can sort of be free. So in many ways it’s very, very freeing, and I think it will help me fight more calm and focused.
“When you’re doing a lot of fights back to back-to-back, I’m knocking everyone out, putting them on their ass, making tens of millions of dollars, you can lose that hunger, and that loss re-instilled that in me,” Paul continued. “I’m excited to come back. I said don’t judge me by my wins, judge me by my losses. So, I’m going to come back. I’ve been working in silence, I promise you that.
“I promise you I know what I’m capable of and this is going to be the best version of Jake Paul that you’re ever going to see in the ring,” he concluded.
For this fight against Diaz, Paul has made several changes to his fight camp, the biggest being the return of “Sugar” Shane Mosley, who helped him prepare for his first professional fight against Ali “AnEsonGib” Al-Fakhri in 2020.
“I brought in a bunch of new people into the team and I’m excited to show people my new skill set on August 5th,” Paul said. “I brought in Shane [Mosley] and Theo Chambers, as well as J’Leon [Love] on the team. I was talking after the fight and they all identified the same little mistake that I was making in the boxing ring that needed to be fixed, which would allow the rest of my mistakes that I was making to be corrected.
“Once they were all on the same page, Shane was free and willing to come in and do this full time, so we assembled the Avengers team,” Paul concluded. “I feel like a whole completely different fighter already in just a short amount of time, and we still have 88 days until the fight. So I’m excited to keep on working and this is going to be my best performance.”
A second loss in a row could spell the end of Paul’s days as a pay-per-view (PPV) draw, so he’s clearly pulling out all the stops to ensure he comes into the ring against Diaz in top form. Will he have the cardio to match his smaller — but relentless — Stockton opponent? Bookies think he’ll manage, handing Paul -270 odds to +200 for the underdog (Diaz).
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