No More Talk NFL Boxing! Le’Veon Bell Scores Nasty TKO Win Adrian Peterson in LA Social Gloves Exhibition
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Los Angeles, CA (September 11th, 2022)– Mark Gastineau tried it. Ed “Too Tall Jones” tried it. Now, two of today’s most noteworthy National Football League running backs have gotten into the act, at the apparent expense of their promising and lucrative NFL careers. Running backs Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings have taken the plunge from pro football, transitioning to pro boxing. Whether exhibition or real, for them, it was quite a jump from one pro sport to another. Boxing promoters did not take much notice of the combatants on this particular occasion, but in the Jake Paul era, social media to boxing is a new and different road to the top for some. In the featured event at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday night, September 10, 2022, in a Social Gloves exhibition match. Bell, age 30, Reynoldsburg, Ohio, stopped Peterson, age 37, Palestine, Texas, in the fifth round. The match was rescheduled from July 30.
The first four rounds were sloppy and uneventful, with both ex-NFL players becoming cautious boxers throwing minor jabs of little power or consequence for four rounds, while a sparse crowd watched the farce. A right by Bell to the chin dropped Peterson in the fifth round, who beat the ten count, but wobbled around the ring before the referee stopped it.
Bell insisted before the exhibition bout his desire to go pro is real. Bell said before the fight he wanted to prove he was “one of the better boxers there is in this world.” When asked after the fight if he plans to turn pro, he stated “Hell yeah!” Bell, who at age 30 does not yet appear to be a serious challenge to Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, Andy Ruiz Jr., Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz, Robert Helenius, Felip Hrgovic, Ali Demirezen, Zhilei Zhang, Michael Hunter, Kubrat Pulev, Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte, Charles Martin, Murat Gassiev or any of the other notables in the heavyweight division, had this to say after boxing future after his so-called pro ‘debut’. “I want to see how far I can go. I want to test my limits. I’m going to continue going, see what happens after this. I’m going to enjoy tonight! Don’t get me wrong. I worked so hard (for my boxing debut in training) for so long. I’m going to enjoy tonight, then work out everything else later. I appreciate everybody’s love and support for real.” This reporter thinks in condition Bell and Peterson should seriously consider going back to pro football. The season has started. The United States of America is a free country. As long as it is legal, and the competitors are clean and not on performance enhancing substances, everybody is free to do their own thing. [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”guq11hppiv” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”0″]Amen[/wpdiscuz-feedback].
English
No Comments Yet