Jake Paul will now be making the transition to MMA after signing his first professional contract with PFL, and he’s even called out Nate Diaz to be his debut opponent. Paul doesn’t just want an MMA fight with Diaz though, as he wants a two-fight deal that includes a boxing match first of all. The MMA fight would then take place 6 months later under the PFL banner. The most interesting part of Paul’s PFL contract isn’t so much who he’ll be fighting though, it’s how much he’ll be getting paid to do so.
Paul will reportedly take part in the PFL’s new ‘Super Fight’ division, which will function as the main attraction of the PFL’s PPV events. This isn’t the first time that the PFL ‘Super Fight’ division has been discussed, as it was one of the main selling points in the promotion’s contract negotiations with Kayla Harrison. Not only will the ‘Super Fight’ division exist outside of the promotion’s regular seasons, but it also offers competitors the biggest rewards in PFL history as all fighters competing will receive a whopping 50% of the PPV revenue at minimum.
Another part of the deal for Paul is that he will own equity in PFL itself, which is more than any professional MMA fighter has ever received before. Additionally, his partner at Most Valuable Promotions, Nakisa Bidarian, will also become PFL’s ‘Head of Fighter Advocacy’ and assist with the logistics for their PPV events. This might seem like a huge career-move, but Bidarian has plenty of experience after serving as the UFC’s Chief Financial Officer from 2011 to 2016.
These kinds of deals, coupled with PFL putting the ‘Super Fight’ division together, will put a lot of pressure on other MMA promotions to increase fighter-pay across the board. It’ll be interesting to see how much money the potential Jake Paul v Nate Diaz fight will make for the PFL and the two fighters, especially given that they have plenty of history already. Back at Paul’s most recent boxing match, Nate Diaz got into an altercation with members of his team backstage and was threatened with arrest if he didn’t leave the venue.
Ariel Helwani broke the news that Jake Paul was challenging Nate Diaz to both a boxing match and an MMA fight under the PFL banner in a recent tweet to his official Twitter account:
In this clip, Jake Paul says he has offered Nate Diaz a two fight deal: one fight in boxing and then 6 months later in MMA under the PFL banner pic.twitter.com/vqzTvZ1ben
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 5, 2023
