Regis Prograis praises Nate Diaz for sparring session, but believes Jake Paul might be too big
As Regis Prograis was preparing for a world title fight, he went to the gym and ran into ex-UFC star Nate Diaz.
At the time, Diaz was warming up for a sparring session, while Prograis wasn’t really trying to break a sweat – he’d just eaten dinner.
That all changed after Diaz’s original sparring partner failed to materialize, and Prograis was approached with an offer to step in.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Prograis told MMA Fighting. “It only happened because his sparring partner didn’t show up, so they asked, ‘Do you want to spar?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll spar Nate Diaz.’ That’s how it happened.
“I had just ate a huge, huge plate of shrimp pasta that my chef made me. I wasn’t supposed to spar. As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure I was supposed to train, but when his sparring partner didn’t show up, they asked me. Nate was way bigger than me, but I just wanted to test him out and see what he had.”
Prograis typically competes between 135 and 140 pounds and gave up a lot of size to Diaz. That didn’t stop him from trading hands over several rounds.
While familiar with Diaz’s resume as a UFC fan, Prograis didn’t know what to expect in boxing, especially after training with MMA fighters in the past.
“He was super tough,” Prograis said about Diaz. “I kind of knew that already. I knew Nate Diaz, I knew his reputation, so I knew he was going to be real tough. That’s kind of what it was. We just went and locked horns and tried to kill each other.
“For sure [I was impressed]. I’ve sparred with a lot of MMA fighters, I spend a lot of time in Brazil, and their hands are just not that good. Nate Diaz’s hands were fairly OK. He has a pretty decent standup game. It’s not on the level of a boxer, but for MMA, his hands are really good. That definitely surprised me, and he was just tough as nails. We definitely had a good sparring session.”
On Aug. 5, Diaz crosses over from MMA to his first professional boxing match against Jake Paul in a highly anticipated showdown in Dallas.
In terms of experience, Paul has competed seven times professionally, compiling a 6-1 record overall. Diaz has amassed a massive resume in MMA with 34 fights, but he’s never had a pro boxing match. Diaz spent years working in the boxing ring, however, working often with multi-division champion Andre Ward.
Prograis can’t judge Paul like Diaz – they’ve never spent any time in the ring. Though he admits the 26-year-old Ohio native looks exactly like a fighter with seven fights in his career.
“I think he has seven fights — he’s on a level of a seven-fight fighter,” Prograis said about Diaz. “I think he fights like he has seven fights. He’s just way more popular than everybody else with seven fights. He’s on that same level.
“One thing I do know about him, he does work really hard, he has a good team around him. He has a lot of power, too. If I’m being honest, skill-wise, it’s not there. Will it ever be there? I don’t know. He has a lot of power, he works really hard, so that’s two good traits about him.”
In a pure boxing match, skill for skill, Prograis definitely gives the edge in talent to Diaz. But he can’t forget about the size difference between the fighters. The bout takes place at 185 pounds, which is where Paul has spent the majority of his boxing career thus far. Diaz, meanwhile, routinely fought at 155 pounds in the UFC.
As far as height and reach, the fighters are relatively close in size. But it’s hard to imagine Paul won’t end up as the much bigger fighter once he rehydrates from the weigh-ins. That’s ultimately the reason why Prograis leans toward Paul getting the win. It’s not so much about being the better boxer, but rather just the size advantage that Paul will possess over Diaz on fight night.
“Size wise, Jake Paul is so much bigger,” Prograis said. “He’s naturally a 200 pound person. If they were the same size, even if Jake Paul had maybe 10 pounds on him, I would give it all to Nate Diaz. If they were the same size, I would give it to Nate Diaz but the size difference is huge. That’s a big, big difference.
“So I would lean towards Jake Paul just because of the size. It’s really too big. If they were the same size, Nate Diaz all the way. I think Nate would probably stop him if they were the same size.”
On Saturday, Prograis defends his WBC light welterweight title against Danielito Zorrilla. But after that fight is over, he will gladly take Diaz’s call if he wants some extra help getting ready for Paul.
“If I’m not in training camp, I would help him out,” Prograis said. “Of course, I would definitely do it.”