'His boxing career is on the line': Inside the Paul vs. Diaz high-stakes matchup

LOS ANGELES -- Nate Diaz came out of one of the six bedrooms of a preposterously large villa overlooking the posh Bel-Air Country Club and walked down a spiral staircase.

Diaz, wearing a Mike Tyson T-shirt, faded jeans and black Travis Scott Nike Air Jordan sneakers, slipped on a black baseball cap with a white "R" on the front, for his sponsor Represent, and then took it off. He did the same for a pair of black Ray-Ban sunglasses.

"Hat or no hat?" Diaz asked a few members of his team, including his president of Real Fight Inc., Zach Rosenfield, and cinematographer Elijah Gutierrez. "Shades or no shades?"

Both gave a thumbs-up, but Diaz wasn't feeling the hat, so he cast it aside. He then walked onto the stone balcony of the rental home in the hills and settled into a white chair for a video interview. Below him was a pool area with a small waterfall and hot tub. Below that, a lush, 18-hole golf course.

Diaz's first fight outside of the UFC in 17 years was less than three weeks away, a boxing match against popular YouTuber-turned-prizefighter Jake Paul. The two men are 50-50 partners in the pay-per-view event. Paul had expressed disappointment in the media with how Diaz was promoting the fight, with little to no trash talk.

This interview was Diaz's chance to turn up the heat, to start slinging some insults Paul's way. To sell more pay-per-views.

He balked.

"I think my fighting from over the years promotes my fights," Diaz told ESPN. "I'm not gonna get in a little-kid argument with the guy and act like [it's] any realer than it is. Don't get no realer than this anyway.

"If we're going to argue, we're gonna fight."

Diaz, one of the biggest MMA stars of his generation, does things on his terms. He won't be prompted or swayed by outside forces -- otherwise, he might still be in the UFC. Paul isn't so different in that regard. For the past three years, he's been disrupting boxing, putting on major events outside the traditional promotion formula. In each other, Diaz, the street tough from Stockton, and Paul, the former Disney Channel kid, have found the perfect dance partner for this pivotal moment in their respective careers.

It took a little time for them and their teams to realize that. Diaz had potential fights with Floyd Mayweather and Paul's brother, Logan, on the table. Paul had options including Mayweather, fellow YouTuber-turned-prizefighter KSI and a rematch with Tommy Fury. Ultimately, several factors, including the real-life heated history between them, led Diaz and Paul to decide on each other.

In the genre of crossover boxing -- one that Paul has pioneered -- this 10-round match on Aug. 5 in Dallas will be the highest-stakes one yet.

In ways big and small, the result of this matchup will tremendously impact the future of both fight careers and what could be next for this current trend of influencers in combat sports. Nakisa Bidarian, the co-founder of Paul's Most Valuable Promotions, believes this could be Paul's final boxing match.

"He may retire if he loses to Nate Diaz," Bidarian told ESPN.