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By: Sean Crose
Here we go again. Another notable athlete from another sport is making the jump to boxing. This sort of thing has happened before, of course – just look up Ed “Too Tall” Jones or Mark Gastineau. Still, professional athletes trying their hand at professional boxing appears to be all the rage lately. What’s more, it can be a lucrative career move for former standouts from other sports. And while fights between those who come from backgrounds other than boxing can indeed be fascinating – like when said individuals take the sport seriously, as Jake Paul and Anderson Silva do – the circus aspect of novelty bouts can irk serious fans. Yet the same cannot be said of casual fans or curiosity seekers.
Hence, LeVeon Bell of National Football League fame is set to square off against former UFC notable Uriah Hall on the undercard of the Paul-Silva pay per view event on October 29th. The scheduled four round cruiserweight affair will represent the professional boxing debut of each man. Bell last saw action on the field back in 2021. The 30 year old has played with the New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As for Hall, the 38 year old combat sport vet retired from the world of Mixed Martial Arts earlier this year. During his career, Hall fought under the Bellator banner before moving on to conquer the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter program with four straight victories. Subsequently fighting under the UFC banner, Hall went on to defeat the likes of Chris Wideman and Silva himself. Clearly it will be Hall who enters the ring on the 29th with the greater percentage of combat sport experience under his belt. He will also have some impressive power in his arsenal, as 13 of his 17 mixed martial arts victories were by knockout.
