Tickets for Jake Paul’s August 5 fight against former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star Nate Diaz have been selling faster than expected, according to Paul.
Only upper-level sections remain available for the scheduled 10-pound boxing match at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Seats in the upper level are selling for $61.50, with some at ringside going for $5,000 and above, according to stubhub.com and ticketmaster.com.
Promoters are expecting more than 500,000 pay-per-view purchases worldwide.
“I think it’s going to surprise everyone,” Paul said this week, according to mmajunkie.com. “This is the most amount of interest we’ve had in terms of ticket sales, live gate. We’re pretty much all sold out. The highest average ticket prices for any of my fights. The first time my opponent had this much traction on social media in terms of the posts he’s making about it. So I think it can exceed expectations.”
Paul added: “I would be happy with 400,000 or 500,000 (pay-per-view buys). But I’m also coming off of selling 830,000 with Tommy (Fury). So it could be even bigger. Nate Diaz is a bigger star than Tommy Fury. He has more experience in this game. Has sold millions of PPVs throughout his career. So it could shock us all.”
Diaz has been one of UFC’s top attractions over the last 15 years. He is fighting Paul, who has built his following on YouTube, outside the UFC banner at 185 pounds. Diaz has never fought professionally as a boxer.
Paul has tried to push Diaz into trash-talking before the fight, but so far, Diaz has not been cooperating. He’s been cordial.
“He talked a lot more to me before we signed up to fight,” Paul told mmajunkie.com. “I expected more out of him, and I expected him to carry that gangster attitude and to not take my insults. But he’s pretty much rolled over … and has been quite boring, which pisses me off. But I’m used to carrying these promotions. It’s no different in this one.”
Social media users have been watching an out-of-shape Diaz spar. They were less than impressed with a video of his workout with former Brazil Olympian Esquiva Falcao.
“At first, I thought he was tired, and in the end it looked like he was dying,” Falcao said in a video on Instagram last month. “His fighting style is crazy. You look at him and say, ‘Oh, he’s tired,’ and then we started sparring.”
