Though not an official win due to their contest being an exhibition, Le’Veon Bell forced a stoppage against Adrian Peterson in the fifth round of their fight at tonight’s “Social Gloves” card in a pretty empty Banc of California Stadium.
Bell, 30, and Peterson, 37, really didn’t do much at all for the first four rounds of their five-round contest, before the ex-Pittsburgh Steelers star threw a big right hand that dropped the former Minnesota Vikings great.
Peterson did get up, but the referee made the right call to stop it there. Peterson was unsteady and his eyes not focusing right, and even more than the normal sanctioned fight, referees are there in this sort of thing to make sure people don’t get hurt unnecessarily.
“I had a great performance. I put in a lot of hard work,” Bell said after the fight. “All the hate, that just motivates me. I wear it as a badge of honor and use it as motivation to be the best I can be.
“In football, it’s more team-oriented. In boxing, I still have my team in the corner, but it’s just me in the ring. I worked so hard and came so far to get to this point. I’m just happy that it actually happened. But I knew it was going to happen.”
Asked if training for boxing was harder than training for the NFL, Bell said it’s one of the “biggest challenges” he’s ever taken on.
More results
- Landon McBroom D-4 Adam Saleh: Judges all had it 38-38. Honestly, I thought it should have been 3-1 McBroom. Saleh just didn’t get enough done but for actual skills I think he might be a bit better. Both these guys clearly put in the work and have tried to learn how to box. I have no problem with this sort of thing because they have given their best effort and aren’t making a mockery or anything. I also thought Saleh showed maybe the better all-around skills, even if I didn’t think he won enough rounds, and Paulie Malignaggi had the same thoughts on commentary. They could run this back on a later card, assuming one of these cards ever happens again considering how few people bought tickets for this.
- Cory Wharton and Chase DeMoor completed an exhibition: DeMoor in particularly was very bad; on shows like this, especially with as many as we’ve seen, you can tell very quickly who has tried at all to learn what they’re doing, and who hasn’t. Wharton was not a standout among these influencer-type fighters, but he was miles better than DeMoor, who looked like he didn’t know much beyond he wasn’t allowed to kick or tackle. His mouthpiece also didn’t fit.
- Abimbola Osundairo TKO-6 Marco Deckmann: Osundairo’s claim to fame is that he was one of the fake Jussie Smollett “attackers” back in 2019. That will probably stay his claim to fame based on this; he has only been boxing a few years, and he’s 29 years old. While he is now 4-0 (3 KO), it’s way too late in the game for him to make any legitimate impact on the sport. He is clearly not some unique natural. He does have some awkwardness that makes him interesting to watch but ProBox TV undercards are probably his ceiling for the remaining months ProBox TV exists. Deckmann (9-2, 7 KO) is not as good as his record would make you think; he was down in the first, second, and then again and for the last time in the sixth.