Nate Diaz, Jake Paul hold vulgar press conference before fight
During a press conference to promote their fight Saturday, Nate Diaz used an anti-gay slur and Jake Paul said he would sexually assault Diaz if they met in a dark street and there was nobody around.
The vulgar language broke out Thursday during a 20-minute press conference held in front of a boisterous crowd in Dallas.
Tela Mange, spokesperson for the Texas Boxing Commission, told USA TODAY Sports by email, "We do not regulate what the fighters say to each other or anyone else.”
Members of the fighters' security teams traded punches during a skirmish at the end of the press conference.
Diaz, the decorated MMA fighter, will be making his professional boxing debut Saturday in a 10-round bout against Paul at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Early in the press conference Thursday, the two boxers accused each other of being a bully. With all this bully talk, asked a member of the media, what would happen if you ran into each other on a dark street and nobody was around.
Paul responded to the question with the sexually explicit comment.
Diaz, who suggested he would not be looking for Paul on the streets, at another point used an anti-gay slur. In 2013, the UFC suspended Diaz for 90 days and fined him $20,000 for using an anti-gay slur on his Twitter account.