WBC junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis believes MMA star Nate Diaz will be too small to overcome Jake Paul, when the two collide in a boxing match on August 5th,

Prograis, who defends his title on Saturday night against Danielito Zorrilla in New Orleans, recently sparred with Diaz and detailed their session.

“He was super tough,” Prograis said about Diaz to MMAFighting.com. “I kind of knew that already. I knew Nate Diaz, I knew his reputation, so I knew he was going to be real tough. That’s kind of what it was. We just went and locked horns and tried to kill each other.

“For sure [I was impressed]. I’ve sparred with a lot of MMA fighters, I spend a lot of time in Brazil, and their hands are just not that good. Nate Diaz’s hands were fairly OK. He has a pretty decent standup game. It’s not on the level of a boxer, but for MMA, his hands are really good. That definitely surprised me, and he was just tough as nails. We definitely had a good sparring session.”

Paul (6-1, 4 KOs), a social media star turned boxer, is looking to bounce back after suffering his first career defeat back in February - when he lost an eight round decision to Tommy Fury, who is the younger brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

While Prograis thinks Diaz has some ability, he feels the size disparity will be too much for Diaz to overcome.

“Size wise, Jake Paul is so much bigger,” Prograis said. “He’s naturally a 200 pound person. If they were the same size, even if Jake Paul had maybe 10 pounds on him, I would give it all to Nate Diaz. If they were the same size, I would give it to Nate Diaz but the size difference is huge. That’s a big, big difference.

“So I would lean towards Jake Paul just because of the size. It’s really too big. If they were the same size, Nate Diaz all the way. I think Nate would probably stop him if they were the same size.”