Nate Diaz got physical with a member of Jake Paul’s team prior to Paul’s matchup with Anderson Silva on Saturday.
Backstage at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., following Diaz’s teammate Chris Avila’s dominant decision win over YouTube star Dr. Mike Varshavski, a skirmish broke out backstage.
While many of the videos that were released of the situation seemed unclear, one video from the FullCombat Twitter page had a closer view that showed Diaz slap an individual, who was identified as a member of Paul’s team.
Check out the video of the moment below.
The reason that Diaz delivered the slap is unclear at this time.
Diaz was also in attendance for Paul’s second bout against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in December. Prior to Friday’s ceremonial weigh-ins, a video played showing Paul’s callout of Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, and Diaz happened to be walking by at the moment and flipped off the screen, a moment captured by MMA Fighting.
With Diaz seemingly parting ways with the UFC following his submission win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279, most believe a potential matchup in the squared circle with Paul will likely happen in the future.
Nate Diaz slaps someone in the face😭 #PaulSilva pic.twitter.com/huNONfW6Ck
— FullCombat (@FullCombat_) October 30, 2022
Later in the evening, Diaz live-streamed from his Instagram account as security refused to let him on the floor of the arena. Later, he appeared to leave as he was flanked by more security guards.
