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This weekend’s big celebrity boxing PPV between Nate Diaz and Jake Paul is all set to go ahead, with both men hitting the 185-pound cruiserweight limit—even if Paul looked a little unsteady on the scales in the process. Further down on the undercard, however, one of Diaz’s longtime teammates had some more pronounced struggles hitting his marks.
Chris Avila had a shortlived UFC stint back in 2016, brought into the promotion as part of the Diaz vs. McGregor fanfare to create a camp vs. camp clash with Artem Lobov. A loss to Enrique Barzola later that year resulted in his release from the promotion. After several years of bouncing around other MMA promotions, Avila eventually landed on the celebrity boxing circuit where he’s enjoyed some surprising success.
Nate Diaz teammate Chris Avila misses weight
Avila actually made his pro boxing debut all the way back in 2014, dropping a unanimous decision to the 0-4-1 Vicente Guzman. Years later he made his comeback, on the undercard of Jake Paul’s second PPV boxing bout against former UFC champion Tyron Woodley, beating former Bellator competitor (and onetime Dillon Danis parking lot opponent) Anthony Taylor. Avila won that bout, and a followup fight with ‘Sexiest Doctor Alive’ Mikhail Varshavski on the Jake Paul vs. Anderson Silva undercard.
Most recently, Avila was seen on the prelims of MF & DAZN X Series 6, the notorious New Orleans event where Nate Diaz choked out a Jake Paul lookalike. The Stockton Native defeated Paul Bamba on the undercard, while getting heckled by celebrity boxer Chase Demoor. That touched off a scuffle with Diaz that later reignited into the street fight that saw Diaz and internet personality Rodney Peterson meet for Peterson’s 15 minutes of getting dropped on the concrete fame.
All of which has led to Avila’s spot on the Jake Paul vs. Nate Diaz undercard, where he’s set to take on longtime former UFC action fighter Jeremy Stephens. A great spot for Avila to shine against someone with a few more legitimate skills than the low-level bozos he’s been trading blows with. Unfortunately for him, he’s already fouled it up, missing weight by more than two pounds for his contracted Super Middleweight bout.
In hopes of keeping everything on track, however, Avila tried a classic trick from his MMA days, taking a page out of Daniel Cormier’s book with his hands on the towel. It didn’t work.
Fortunately for Avila, Ariel Helwani reports that the fight will still go forward. Avila and Stephens have come to a new, undisclosed agreement for the bout on tomorrow’s PPV card.
Amanda Serrano comes in 4 pounds under, gets new scale
One odd point of weigh in drama from the event came from co-main fighter and undisputed featherweight champion Amanda Serrano. Serrano is set to defend her belts in a rematch against form title holder and brief Bellator talent Heather Hardy. But, when Serrano first stepped on the scales, she was surprisingly under-weight.
Wild that a scale could be that far off proper calibration. That wasn’t the only moment of drama around the fight either, with Hardy looking clearly surprised that she ended up on championship weight for her own trip to the scales.
Serrano recently made headlines with the news that she’s signed with the PFL to compete in MMA as part of the promotion’s PPV ‘Superfight’ division. Serrano has competed in MMA before, making her debut back in 2018 with a draw against Corina Herrera. She followed that fight with two victories, her last a guillotine submission win at iKON Fighting Federation 7 back in 2021.
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