PFL ups the ante, offers Nate Diaz $15 million to sack up and fight Jake Paul in MMA

Nate Diaz refused to fight Jake Paul for $10 million.

But PFL head cheese Donn Davis believes the promotion can get as high as $15 million for the ex-UFC welterweight, who dropped a decision to “The Problem Child” in their pay-per-view (PPV) boxing match last August in Dallas.

Assuming he’s not too angry (or too scared) to accept.

“He’s a people’s champion,” Davis told The MMA Hour. “We respect Nate. If he accepted that fight, the fans would love that fight and we would love to have him do that fight and we’re offering him more money than other people because that’s respect. One thing about Nate or fighters or entrepreneurs, they’re their own men. They do what they want to do. Nate will do it when he wants to do it so I’m just trying to create a canvas that we’re open for business.”

Diaz finished up his UFC contract in late 2022 and outside of his boxing match against Paul, hasn’t done much in the combat sports arena. There was talk of starting his own fight promotion but that appears to be on hold for the time being.

“It’s like the old Motel 6, ‘we’ll leave the light on’ so I just want to leave the light on and I want to say, ‘here’s $15 million, here’s Jake, we have all the infrastructure at PFL and we’re easy to work with,’” Davis continued. “Dink, the light’s on ... $10 to 15 [million]. I’m just letting him know, the range is there. There’s a higher end of the range and a lower end of the range. Like, beep, the light’s on.”

Motel 6 used to run a series of commercials featuring the voice talents of radio personality Tom Bodett (who also did voice ads for the now-defunct Jamesway). Every Motel 6 spot featuring Bodett would end with “...and we’ll leave the light on for ya’.”

In other words, Davis is a boomer making boomer references.

PFL is the talk of the town (again) after acquiring Bellator in a blockbuster deal Davis claims will make his outfit the “co-leader” in MMA. I guess the idea of sharing the spotlight is enough to make UFC CEO Dana White “worried” about the future.