Adrian Peterson has been hit hard during his legendary NFL career, but he likely never took a shot like this.
The 30-year-old Le’Veon Bell — who said he wasn’t going to play this NFL season to pursue a career in boxing — knocked out Peterson with a big right hand in the fifth round to win the fight between running backs on Sunday at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, the NY Post reports.
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It was part of a sparsely-attended Social Gloves co-main event under a bout between YouTube stars Austin McBroom and AnEsonGib, won by Gib who knocked McBroom down five times and won by KO in the fourth round.
It wasn’t a bout that boxing aficionados will be talking about for years to come. According to a Sporting News report, the first four rounds of the Bell-Peterson fight were uneventful as each boxer stuck mostly to jabs and weren’t able to throw many power punches.
Though Bell hasn’t officially retired from the league, he has strongly hinted he won’t play football again. He also wants to fight in other bouts.
“This is, I guess like my introduction to kind of show what I’ll be doing and how I’ll be going about myself. Just an intro,” the three-time Pro Bowler said during the fight promotion news conference.
As for the 37-year-old Peterson, he still is holding out hope he will be picked up by an NFL team. A sure-fire Hall of Famer, Peterson finished last season — his 15th in the NFL — on injured reserve with the Seahawks. Peterson, who is the NFL’s fifth all-time leading rusher with 14,918 yards, is currently a free agent.
Bell, who has rushed for 6,554 yards in his NFL career, spent the first six seasons with the Steelers, who selected him in the second round of the 2013 draft. He held out the 2018 season with Pittsburgh because of contract issues and later signed with the Jets in 2019.
New York released Bell 19-months later and he went on to have short stints with the Chiefs and Ravens.
In his last stop, Bell played just three games with the Buccaneers, rushing for just 18 yards on eight carries.
This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.
