Diaz has boldly claimed he would beat heavyweight rivals Joshua and Fury in a ‘real fight’ despite being considerably smaller than both of them.
UFC legend Nate Diaz has claimed he would “f*** up” Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury in a ‘real fight’.
Diaz is considerably undersized compared to boxing rivals Joshua and Fury, weighing around 30kg less and giving up around six inches in height. What Diaz lacks in size he makes up for in grappling experience, being a black-belt in jiu-jitsu with 12 UFC wins coming by submission.
Comparisons between MMA fighters and boxers have been made for years but only a handful of pugilists have tried their luck in the cage, with most of them coming up short. Diaz has put confidence in his grappling abilities whilst discussing hypothetical fights against Joshua and Fury.
Watch all of the biggest upcoming fights live on DAZN, with some of the best sporting action available as part of your subscription as well as on pay-per-view. DAZN is the only place to watch Anthony Joshua as well as the biggest upcoming fights in the Misfits boxing series. You can also follow all of the best action from fights around the world broadcast weekly as part of the package.
“I’ll f*** up Tyson Fury. I’ll f*** up Anthony Joshua. All these motherf****rs in a real fight, they don’t stand a chance. It’s like, we’ve got, everybody’s going on boxing [Floyd] Mayweather. We’re playing a little game… I don’t like being like, labelled as an ‘MMA fighter’. I’m a boxer. I’m a Jiu-Jitsu guy. I’m a kickboxer. I don’t like any of the one-dimensional things by itself anyway. I like it all,” he told Sneako.
Fury has refused to rule out an MMA crossover and even teased a cage fight with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou before their boxing fight last October. Joshua has shown little interest in MMA but he takes on Ngannou next month in the hopes of securing an undisputed heavyweight world title shot.
Cult hero Diaz is currently a free agent after parting ways with the UFC in September 2022. The 38-year-old made his boxing debut against social media star Jake Paul last August but was dropped on the way to losing a one-sided decision. Diaz admitted he wanted to fight on UFC 300 in April but is open to taking another boxing fight after missing out on the mega-event.
“I wanted to, but I don’t think so,” he said. “I think I wanna do boxing, fight another fighter. I could fight anybody in the world right now, but no one can fight me. Everybody’s locked down to organisations, locked down to the UFC, PFL.” Diaz has been linked to a boxing rematch against Jorge Masvidal in March almost five years on since they first met in the UFC.
