Jake Paul and Nate Diaz’s press conference turns into a massive brawl

The tension building in the fight between Jake Paul and Nate Diaz is palpable, but the action clearly couldn’t wait until Saturday night, when the two sides came to blows at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference.

The press descended into chaos when Paul and Diaz faced off in Dallas with a huge brawl between the two rivals’ staff.

It’s unclear what prompted the scuffle, but Diaz appeared to exchange words with Paul’s manager Nakisa Bidarian on stage at the American Airlines Center.

Security for the YouTube star turned boxer intervened and crept around the couple, before one member of staff shoved another, leading to an all-out brawl.

Punches were thrown, but both boxers managed to stay away, with Paul even turning his back to the fight and shouting something to the crowd.

The scrap was quickly dealt with as the quarreling parties were separated. While it’s unclear who struck the first blow, Paul later took to Twitter to claim that Diaz’s team is threatening legal action.

“Nate’s team emailed my team trying to claim assault after his team waved first,” he posted after the press conference.

“Apparently the man who waved first is in the hospital to be stitched up. Hilarious that those fake gangsters behave like this!’

Paul also claimed after the uproar that his mind games with Diaz had worked.

“Man, I’m deep in his head,” he said on the DAZN weigh-in show after Diaz’s performance.

“I got a picnic in his head, and man, I hurt his feelings. In his head, he actually got all pissed off. The security teams started fighting. His security swung first, my security hit him with a check hook, and that was that. … This is what I do. I like to get into people’s heads, to stir them up.’

Earlier in the week, Diaz bizarrely walked out during his face-to-face interview with Paul.

Diaz has been criticized for his lack of promotion for the fight and this continued when Ariel Helwani arranged a sit-down interview between the pair after years of exchanging insults over social media.

In a video clip of their interview, Paul can be seen praising his opponent on Saturday, who seemed to be restless throughout.

Paul said, “He’s a warrior. He has fought some of the greatest fights in MMA history.”

Diaz then appears to raise his hand and look off-camera as Paul compliments him on having “a great fanbase”.

Paul then states that Diaz is “ready for a terrible war” and neither man wants to “lose and retreat” – as his August 5 opponent turns to look behind him.

As the YouTuber turned boxer continues to talk, Diaz prepares to get up, hesitates, then finally stands up and begins to walk away.

The camera pans to Paul who starts laughing with his head in his hands, before Diaz hears someone say, “Yeah, I’ll be right back.”

However, that was not to be the case as the footage then shows Diaz walking out of the room where the interview took place and getting into a car which drives off.