Nate Diaz has answered Jake Paul’s latest request for an MMA fight with a four-word invitation: “Pull the fuck up @jakepaul.”
Diaz posted the response on Sunday with a 39-second video after Paul again named him as the opponent he wants for his cage debut. The challenge has new promotional machinery behind it following the merger of Most Valuable Promotions and the Professional Fighters League.
Paul made the renewed call during an interview recorded one day after the merger announcement. Asked to identify an opponent for his first MMA fight, he named Diaz first and Mike Perry as another option.
“Yeah, Nate Diaz. Mike Perry would be great. We love Mike Perry. The Nate conversation has been ongoing. It just never made complete sense. I think up until this moment, things just got a lot more serious with this announcement. So, I want the Nate Diaz MMA fight very, very bad.”
Pull the fuck up @jakepaul pic.twitter.com/gAHPtH8alh
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) August 9, 2026
Paul’s callout gets the answer earlier negotiations never produced
Diaz’s post does not create a signed fight. No date, weight, rules, venue or purse has been announced. It does put his answer on the record after several rounds of public offers and counteroffers failed to turn the matchup into an MMA booking.
The complete interview segment carrying Paul’s challenge is below.
The two men already share a 10-round boxing result. Paul defeated Diaz by unanimous decision at American Airlines Center in Dallas on August 5, 2023. The judges scored it 97-92, 98-91 and 98-91, and Paul dropped Diaz with a left hook in Round 5.
The MMA version entered negotiations almost immediately. Paul later discussed a $15 million offer under the PFL banner, but Diaz remained a free agent and no contract was completed. Paul said in July that the bout was still on the table during his return from the broken jaw suffered against Anthony Joshua. His latest interview moved the matchup from a possibility to the fight he said he wants “very, very bad.”
That progression follows MiddleEasy’s earlier coverage of Paul keeping the Diaz MMA fight alive during his sparring comeback.
The merger gives Paul an MMA roster and operating platform
MVP and PFL announced their combination on July 30. Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian remain co-founders and board members, while John Martin becomes CEO and a board member. The merged group will operate under the MVP brand, with PFL’s roster and league infrastructure forming the base of MVP MMA.
🚨Most Valuable Promotions and the Professional Fighters League have officially merged. 🚨
Together under the MVP banner, we’re bringing world-class boxing, MMA, premium live events, athlete development, and global content distribution into one fighter-first organization. The… pic.twitter.com/uVVP9OFlol
— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 30, 2026
The deal places nearly 400 boxing and MMA athletes inside the combined company. It also gives Paul a direct promotional route to the debut he has discussed since signing with PFL in January 2023. The full structure and investor details are covered in MiddleEasy’s report on the MVP-PFL merger.
Paul’s professional boxing record stands at 12-2 with seven knockouts. His two losses came against Tommy Fury by split decision in February 2023 and Anthony Joshua by sixth-round knockout in December 2025. He remains 0-0 in professional MMA.
Diaz is 21-14 in MMA and 1-1 in professional boxing. The Ultimate Fighter 5 winner closed his UFC run by submitting Tony Ferguson in September 2022, lost the 2023 boxing match to Paul, and beat Jorge Masvidal by majority decision in their July 2024 boxing rematch. His first MMA bout after leaving the UFC ended in a doctor stoppage loss to Mike Perry after Round 2 at MVP MMA 1 on May 16, 2026; MiddleEasy’s fight report details the bloody two-round contest.
Neither side has announced the next contractual step. For now, the record consists of Paul’s request, Diaz’s direct response and a merged promotion with the ability to stage the fight.
