Josh Lawless
Nate Diaz was relatively calm and collected in his press conference with Jake Paul but he did quite clearly lose it at one point.
Paul hurled many verbal jabs at the Stockton fighter at the American Airlines Cr in Dallas, Texas, ahead of the encounter on Saturday night.
Diaz, as he often is, was a man of few words and didn't have too much to say for a large chunk of the presser, which was hosted by MMA journalist Ariel Helwani.
Advert
However, when 'Derek', an employee for Paul's Betr Betting company, asked a question, Diaz's mood changed considerably.
At a previous press conference, the 'reporter' had riled up the former UFC star by claiming he would beat up his brother Nick.
Paul intervened by saying he would fire Derek after the event, but he was back in the hotseat on Thursday.
At first it seemed as though Derek was apologising for those previous remarks but then when he said, "Can't wait to watch Jake knock you the f*** out", Diaz jumped up immediately.
He then demanded the troll got up on stage to meet him face-to-face, saying, "bring this little b**** up here".
Derek walked over as if he was going to but then elected against doing so, leading to Diaz unleashing homophobic slurs at Paul and adding, "and f*** your dad too!" in reference to his father Greg.
The face-off was civil between the two fighters, who performed their poses and went their separate ways.
However chaos ensured as the security teams clashed on stage, starting with pushing and shoving and leading to punches being thrown.
The two teams have got into it previously at Paul's bout with Anderson Silva and the melee lasted for a brief period before non-threatening bodyguards were able to diffuse the situation.
Paul is looking to bounce back from his first career defeat suffered at the hands of Tommy Fury, while Diaz is making his boxing debut after leaving UFC upon the expiration of his contract.