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By Ken Hisner: On the undercard of Jake Paul and Anderson Silva Saturday, October 29th, a football player turned professional in Le’Veon Bell, former Pro Bowler, against former MMA fighter Uriah Hall. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On September 10 of this year, Bell fought former NFL MVP Adrian Anderson in an exhibition match, stopping him in the fifth round. He said, “As soon as Professional Sports approached me about joining the Paul-Silva Pay-per-view, I told them, ‘I want to join,’ and I don’t care who the opponent is.” He added, “Uriah Hall would feel the force of my blows and pretend to surrender. He’s not built like me.”
Hall made his debut in 2005. In the Ring of Combat Middleweight Championship, Hall competed in the 2013 season of The Ultimate Fighter. Making it to the finals, Hall lost to Kelvin Gastelum. After the fight, he went 10-8 in the UFC.
I remember Ed “Too Tall” Jones from the Dallas Cowboys went 6-0 with 5 knockouts turning pro in November of 1979, defeating Abraham Meneses, 5-6, in his undefeated fight. I was at a PPV show in Philadelphia trying to watch it on the screen, and Jones at 6:11 was standing next to me, and I didn’t know how to say, “I’m sorry!”
Lee “The Italian Stallion” Canalito was a defensive lineman for the University of Houston, turned pro in January of 1977 and, in his fourth fight, defeated Greg Sorrentino, 7-1-1 in May. He will continue to win 21 straight, with 19 by knockout, which ended in September 1987, beating Mike Jones, 4-1, in Houston.
One of the most successful is Charley Powell, who came out of high school at 19 and joined the San Francisco 49er as a defensive end. In March of 1953, he started his first game and ended in a draw, and went on to win the next 11 games. Then he was stopped by Charley “The Bayonne Bomber” Norkus, 24-12, in San Francisco in October 1954. In December 1958, in a long-awaited rematch, Powell defeated Norkus, 32-18 , in San Diego.
In his next fight, Powell won his biggest fight by stopping former world champion Cuban Nino Valdez, 46-15-3, in Miami Beach. In January of 1963, Muhammad Ali stopped Powell, 16-0, in Pittsburgh. In December 1964, he lost to another world champion in Floyd Patterson, 40-4, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He finished with a 25-11-3 record with 17 strikeouts.
New York Jets linebacker Mark Gastineau in 1983 was the Defensive Player of the Year. He played 10 years for the Jets. In June of 1991, he made his boxing debut, beating Derrick Dukes, also making his debut in Salem, VA.
Gastineau would win his first 9 fights before losing to Tim Anderson, 25-15-1, in June of 1992 in San Francisco. In December, in a rematch, he defeated Anderson in 6 rounds in Oklahoma City, OK. In his last fight, he lost to a former football player, Alonzo Highsmith, with a score of 15-0-1, in Tokyo, Japan. His last record was 15-2, with 15 knockouts in November of 1996.
Speaking of Highsmith, he played 6 games for 3 teams, Houston Oilers, Dallas Cowboys, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In February of 1995, he became a pro. He defeated Marcos Gonzalez with a score of 14-2-1 in Houston, Texas. He would go on to win his first 9 fights in March 1996 against Jim Mullen, 7-4-1, due to a head-to-head fight that ended in a technical match in the first round.
Highsmith would go on to win his next 6 bouts by knockout when he stopped Gastineau. He would go on to win 17 straight before losing to Terry Verners, 7-20-2, which would be his only loss. He ended his career in the next draft of the fight with Reggie Miller, 27-15, in New York, in December of 1998. His final record is 27-1-2 with 23 knockouts.
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