Diaz ‘Hiding Behind A Rock’ After Paul Loss

Davis sounds frustrated with his inability to coax Nate Diaz into the PFL SmartCage to fight Jake Paul for an eight-figure payday.

The PFL is in an interesting position right now. They have two big names signed in Jake Paul and Francis Ngannou, but no one to put them in the PFL SmartCage against.

Francis Ngannou just took Tyson Fury to the limit in a major upset of a battle in Riyadh. There’s talk that he could fight Deontay Wilder in MMA next, but the deal will have to make financial sense versus whatever Saudi Arabia is preparing to offer him for a follow-up fight.

Then there’s Jake Paul, who is willing to fight Nate Diaz in MMA under the PFL banner. That one seems like a no-brainer, but according to PFL founder Donn Davis, Diaz isn’t interested.

“If we could ever put together Jake vs. Nate, if Nate would stop weaseling out and complaining about that MMA fight with Jake,” Davis said on the latest episode of The MMA Hour.

“I respect Nate, he’s the people’s champ, he’s a man’s man, he’s stand up as all stand up,” Davis added. “But he said ‘I’ll do it in the PFL SmartCage two minutes after the [Paul boxing fight], he’s got a standing offer of between $10 and $15 million, and he’s hiding behind a rock.”

“$10-15 million, biggest payday of his life. He gets beat by Jake, and he’s hiding behind a rock.”

Asked how the PFL can afford to offer these unheard of payouts in MMA, Davis admitted to an unusual financial arrangement.

“What we’re willing to do for the biggest fights in the world, not all fights, the biggest fights in the world, is we’re willing to break even and move the money to the fighters,” he said. “We’re on record for pay-per-view superfights at the highest level — Francis, Jake or Nate — we’ll break even and not make one penny for a few of those fights.”

“So all the money that’s being made by other companies making money off the backs of fighters, we’ve stepped up and we said ‘We’re gonna move some PPV money to you guys on a true 50/50 revenue split.”

Is that the best model to guarantee a long run as a promotion? It remains to be seen. But its a better deal than MMA fighters will get from anyone else. Nate, why not bust Jake up in a cage?