Jake Paul beats UFC legend Nate Diaz by unanimous decision in Dallas boxing showdown as YouTube star-turned-superstar fighter knocks down his opponent in the fifth to bounce back from Tommy Fury loss

Nate Diaz had the crowd. He just never had the judges, who awarded Jake Paul a hard-fought unanimous-decision win in Dallas on Saturday night at the American Airlines Center.

In what was an obvious choice to anyone but the throngs of disappointed Diaz fans, Paul’s 10-round effort was too much to ignore. He not only knocked down the UFC legend in the fifth, but was easily better in all but one or two rounds as he bounced back from his first professional defeat to Tommy Fury, whom he mentioned as a potential future opponent afterwards.

For Paul, whose status as a social media influencer was mentioned by ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. before the fight, there is always a question of legitimacy as a boxer.

But on Saturday in Dallas, Paul was favored for a reason: His seven career fights compared to zero from Diaz.

Diaz’s MMA background was hard to ignore on Saturday. Even the Stockton, California native joked afterwards about getting Paul in a ‘chokehold’ briefly in the ninth.

Jake Paul (left) knocks down Nate Diaz in the fifth round of their bout in Dallas, Texas

Understandably, Diaz looked like the novice in the first round. Paul rushed out of his corner, pushed the action, and dictated the first three minutes entirely.

Given the southpaw-orthodox matchup, there were a few awkward entanglements early. But that ugliness aside, Paul looked like the real boxer in the first while Diaz was trying to get his bearings.

‘I wish I could have done better,’ Diaz said after falling to 0-1 as a boxer.

But Diaz — who had the support of the UFC-centric crowd throughout the fight — came alive in the second. By the third, he and Paul were about equal in punches landed, and Diaz absolutely won the fourth, landing 20 power punches to Paul’s 13, according to CompuBox.

Diaz was knocked down in the fifth but managed to recover and carry on to the end of the bout

Diaz, though, appeared grow tired in the fifth, which is when Paul scored a relatively easy knockdown with a strong left hook.

And fatigue was to be expected for someone who competes in MMA at around 170 pounds. At Friday’s weigh-in, Diaz was up near near the catch-weight limit of 185 pounds, and that appeared to become a factor as the night went progressed.

Diaz wasn’t finished. He had a resurgent eight round, connecting on consecutive uppercuts and landing another later in the round before giving Paul a slight headbutt to end the frame. In total, Diaz outlanded Paul 26 to 17 in the eighth, and maintained the pressure in the ninth.

But it wasn’t nearly enough for the win, and the judges’ decision reflected that.