Cormier Knocks Paul’s MMA Potential After Diaz Boxing Match

Many people were impressed with the way Jake Paul performed against Nate Diaz during their boxing match last Saturday, but it ultimately left Daniel Cormier less confident in “Problem Child” crossing over into mixed martial arts (MMA).

Paul exceeded a lot of expectations by essentially piecing up Diaz over the course of 10 rounds. Diaz didn’t seem completely invested in the lucrative boxing match which allowed Paul to score a crucial fifth-round knockdown and cruise his way to a unanimous decision win. Whether you like him as a person or not, “Problem Child” certainly showed improvements against his stiffest competition to date.

Now that Paul has taken care of business against Diaz inside of the boxing ring the two fighters are already discussing a potential rematch inside of the cage. Paul signed a deal with Professional Fighters League (PFL) earlier this year and has already started training kicks and grappling for his eventual MMA debut.

That said, Cormier doesn’t believe Paul will do all that well inside of the cage, especially if he fights Diaz. According to the former UFC double champion, Paul didn’t show enough on the feet to suggest he could keep Diaz at bay during a MMA fight and avoid submissions.

“Nate will submit him,” said Cormier on this YouTube channel. “If they fight, Nate will submit him. I’ll take less confidence in Jake Paul fighting Nate in MMA because of last weekend. Jake’s best chance of dominating Nate Diaz was in boxing, and he didn’t. While he did win the fight convincingly, he didn’t put him out like many people thought he would – and that’s different.”

Paul, who admitted that Diaz slapped a pretty good choke on him during their boxing match, is confident he can smoke out the Stockton native under MMA rules. The social media influencer believes he has better cardio, power, and wrestling than Diaz. Not to mention the striking.

While Cormier was impressed with some of what Paul did against Diaz he still sees room for massive improvement. And if Paul has any chance of taking Diaz out inside of the cage he’s going to have to sharpen his tools yet again.

“Jake Paul, for me, did a good job – but still shows that there’s a lot of work to be done,” Cormier said. “What I will say about Jake Paul: He’s better than people try to give him credit for and he’s a lot tougher than people try to give him credit for, because one of the areas I thought he would struggle was when it got hard, he would kind of fold up and go back to making videos or doing something different. But he doesn’t pack it in – he fights through the tough times.”