Footage of Nate Diaz preparing for his upcoming boxing bout with YouTuber Jake Paul next month has emerged on social media.Ahead of the 10-round contest in Dallas, Texas on the 5th of August, Diaz took the time to take in a sparring session with 2012 Olympic silver medalist and 30-1 professional fighter Esquiva Falcao.At the time of the sparring, which is believed to have been filmed last month, Falcao himself was preparing for his IBF world middleweight title fight against Vincenzo Gualtieri in Germany. Sadly for Falcao, he lost that fight earlier this month, losing via unanimous decision after 12 rounds.Talking about his experience of sparring with the UFC legend, it seemed he was not impressed with his sparring partner, who will make his boxing debut when he goes up against Paul.

What has been said about Nate Diaz's boxing skills?

“At first I thought he was tired, and in the end, it looked like he was dying,” Falcao said after the session earlier this month.

“His fighting style is crazy. You look at him and say, ‘Oh, he’s tired,’ and then we started sparring. [Coach] Robert [Garcia] told me in the second round, ‘He’s tired already, hold back a little bit and keep the rhythm, so he does at least 10 rounds.'

“I held back and kept boxing, and we did 12 rounds. He was tired, but taking punches and throwing, too. [He] is bad, [he] is bad, but since he’s too heavy — he’s overweight, probably around 220 pounds or more — and I’m the only big guy in the gym, I had to do it. But I liked doing it."

Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz

Diaz has not fought at over 170lbs in his career, while Paul fights at 185lbs, also boasting a youth and size advantage over his opponent.

Diaz is known for his immense level of cardio, but will he still be able to use that against Paul if, as claimed by Falcao, he could be carrying as much as an extra 40 pounds into the contest?

However, Falcao's claims did not go unnoticed, certainly not by Diaz's longtime teammate Chris Avila.

What has Nate Diaz's camp said about the sparring video?

“Bro, that guy got f***** up,” Avila said on The MMA Hour.

“Yeah, we just got back — we were out in LA, and we went to a boxing gym, this guy’s like a silver medalist out of Brazil and whatever. He’s 30-0, he’s fighting for a world title next week. And then boxers are like that — they’re pretty dumb. They’re passive. They’re really passive.

“So Nate sparred this guy, did 12 rounds. Bro, he got f****** up. He lost every round, then afterward he immediately goes to the coach, ‘Oh, I’m cutting weight, that’s why I didn’t look too good.’ And then you see on his [Instagram] story, it’s in Portuguese, so we had somebody translate — and he was talking s***.”

According to Avila, Falcao returned to the gym the next day and pulled the exact same move against him — sparring Avila and then talking trash afterward, but because of the language barrier caused by Falcao’s comments being made in Portuguese, no one on Team Diaz realised what had been said until after both spars were already in the books.

Avila himself will also be in action on the 5th of August, on the same card as Diaz vs Paul, when he goes up against UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens.