A Jake Paul lemming masquerading as a reporter was sacked on the spot during the boxer’s Wednesday morning press conference.
Paul’s press conference showdown with UFC icon Nate Diaz turned into chaos when they came face to face ahead of their bout on August 5 in Texas.
In a wild media conference at American Airlines Arena, Paul swiped Diaz using a prop monkey while Diaz at one point stormed out without explanation in the middle of the interviews.
He eventually returned for the face off, saying he simply needed to use the bathroom.
The most headline-grabbing moment was when an employee of Paul’s Betr Media company attacked Diaz’s brother Nick.
The media member asked: “Nate I’m actually a boxer myself and I have been trying to get on this undercard, I’m just wondering if you think I could fight your brother, Nick?
“If he’s anything like you I think I’d beat his f***ing a**.”
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Diaz was stoic as he processed the bizarre question before telling the reporter to pipe down.
“You know my homeboys see you right now,” he told the reporter.
“That was stupid, huh? That was stupid. What’s your name?”
The man responded by saying he was “Derrick from Betr Media”.
Diaz was scathing in his reply.
“Hey, Derrick from Better Media, you’re a stupid a** motherf*****,” he said.
“The f***? You deserve to have your a** whipped.”
The reporter said he was “definitely pretty nervous”.
It turns out he should have been more worried about his employment with Paul cutting in to say he was going to “fire” the reporter.
“He works for my company. I’ll handle that later. I’m sorry about that Nate,” Paul told the press conference.
“I’ll fire him later. Derrick shut up. Derrick shut up.”
UFC referee Marc Goddard rolled his eyes after seeing the exchange.
“Absolute clown,” he posted on Twitter.
“Safe to say that Derrick would absolutely s*** his pants running in to Nate (or Nick) outside of the presser.
“Is this what we’ve become? A “media member” abusing & mocking a genuine bona fide fight sport legend. Sometimes we really do bring out the dregs don’t we?”
The man referred to as “Derrick” then quickly shut himself down.
The Paul-Diaz fight is finally happening after more than two years of verbal barbs being exchanged.
Diaz had previously been unable to get out of the contract he still had with the UFC.
The 38-year-old further tossed he bout into uncertainty when he was arrested last month over a viral video where he was seen choking out a man during a street brawl.
It will be Paul’s first fight since he lost his unbeaten record at the hands of Tommy Fury in February.
A rematch between Paul and Fury was expected to follow until Diaz surprisingly signed to face Paul instead.
But the American — speaking at the Miami Grand Prix — insisted that the celebrity boxing rivals will fight again soon.
Paul told Sky Sports: “It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen for sure.
“I think it was a great fight, it was entertaining, it was the biggest pay-per-view buys in boxing for the last two years so I think we have to run it back.
“Tommy is down and I’m excited for that.”
