Ben Askren expects Jake Paul to come out on top against Nate Diaz.
Paul returns to the ring in August when he faces former UFC star Diaz in an eight-round, 185-pound boxing match. It will notably be Diaz's professional boxing debut.
One person who knows a lot about making their boxing debut against Paul is Askren, who suffered a first-round TKO defeat to the YouTuber-turned-boxer.
And while Diaz has a lot more experience (and comfortability) with boxing compared to Askren, “Funky” still expects Paul to come out on top.
“I got to imagine [he beats Diaz],” Askren said on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel (via MMA Fighting). “I didn’t think Jake Paul would beat Tyron [Woodley] or Anderson Silva. So yeah, I kind of think so.”
Paul has certainly changed Askren's as well as the combat sports world's opinion of him seeing as many thought the their fight would be a foregone conclusion.
Instead, Paul not only finished Askren, but also went on to brutally knock out Tyron Woodley and outpoint Anderson Silva.
The 26-year-old did suffer his first defeat against Tommy Fury — an actual professional boxer — but when it comes to boxing MMA fighters, he clearly seems to have an edge.
“It sounded like fun [to box him] and I hoped he sucked,” Askren explained. “We didn’t know at that point! At that point, he only boxed a comedian or something and a basketball player. So we didn’t know nothing.
“I thought, ‘Oh, hopefully, this dude’s just a bum. He’s gonna try and hit me hard for a round, he’s gonna get tired, then I’m gonna beat him up.’ We didn’t know he was any good.”