Via Ken Hissner: Against Jake Paul and Anderson Silva on Saturday, October 29, another professional soccer player turned pro in a match against Le’Veon Bell, a former Pro Bowler, against a former MMA fighter. Uriah Hall. He has played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On September 10 of this year, Bell pitted former NFL MVP Adrian Anderson in an exhibition match, stopping him in the fifth round. He said, “As soon as Most Valuable Ads approached me about Paul-Silva’s pay-per-view engagement, I told them, ‘I want to join’ and didn’t care about the competition. Who is. ‘ He added, ‘Uriah Hall would feel the power of my punches and strike out as if he were being submissive. He’s not built like me.”
Hall debuted professionally in 2005. As the middleweight champion of Ring of Combat, Hall competed in the 2013 season of The Ultimate Fighter. Reaching the final, Hall lost to Kelvin Gastelum. After the fight, he won 10-8 at the UFC.
I remember Ed “Too Tall” Jones from the Dallas Cowboys won 6-0 with five professional knockouts in November 1979, beating Abraham Meneses, 5-6, in his only non-knockout match . I was at a PPV show in Philadelphia and trying to watch it on screen, and Jones at 6:11 was standing next to me, and I didn’t know how to say, “sorry!”
Lee “The Italian Stallion” Canalito was a defensive player for the University of Houston, turning professional in January 1977 and in his fourth game defeating Greg Sorrentino, 7-1-1 that month. 5. He went on to win 21 in a row, with 19 by knockout, finishing in September 1987, knocking out Mike Jones, 4-1, in Houston.
One of the more successful was Charley Powell, who graduated from high school at 19 and joined the San Francisco 49er as a defensive back. In March 1953, he made his debut in a draw, going on to win the next 11 matches. He was then stopped by Charley “The Bayonne Bomber” Norkus, 24-12 years old, in San Francisco in October 1954. In December 1958, in a long-awaited rematch, Powell hit defeated Norkus, 32-18 years old, in San Diego.
In Powell’s next game, he won his biggest fight yet stopping former Cuban world contender Nino Valdez, 46-15-3, at Miami Beach. In January 1963, Powell was stopped by Muhammad Ali, 16-0, in Pittsburgh. In December 1964, he lost to another world champion at Floyd Patterson 40-4 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He finished 25-11-3 with 17 knockouts.
New York Jets defensive midfielder Mark Gastineau in 1983 was Defensive Player of the Year. He played for 10 years for the Jets. In June 1991, he began his boxing career, knocking out Derrick Dukes, also making his debut in Salem, VA.
Gastineau won his first nine games by knockout before losing to Tim Anderson, 25-15-1, in June 1992 in San Francisco. In December, in a rematch, he knocked Anderson out in six rounds in Oklahoma City, OK. In his last match, he lost to another former professional soccer player, Alonzo Highsmith, 15-0-1 in Tokyo, Japan. His last record was 15-2, with 15 knockdowns in November 1996.
Speaking of Highsmith, he played 6 seasons for 3 teams: Houston Oilers, Dallas Cowboys, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In February 1995, he turned professional. He defeated Marcos Gonzalez, 14-2-1, in Houston, Texas. England had won their first nine matches previously in March 1996 against Jim Mullen, 7-4-1, due to a head-to-head clash that ended in a technical draw in the first round. .
Highsmith will win the next 6 matches by knockout when he blocks Gastineau. He will win 17 in a row before losing to Terry Verners, 7-20-2, which will be the only loss of his career. He ended his career in his next game against Reggie Miller, 27-15 years old, in New York, in December 1998. His final record was 27-1-2 with 23 kills.
