Uriah Hall vs Le’Veon Bell joins Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva

After smoking fellow running back Adrian Peterson in an exhibition last month, Le’Veon Bell is set to make his pro debut against UFC veteran Uriah Hall as part of the October 29th Showtime PPV headlined by Jake Paul vs Anderson Silva. The bout will be four rounds at a 195-pound catchweight.

Paul and co. have usually been good about pitting fighters against fighters and athletes against athletes, even if the different disciplines led to some awkward matchups. Mixing the two is going to end poorly. That was a peach of a shot Bell landed on Peterson, sure, but the 38-year-old Hall is a seasoned kickboxer who spent nine years in the Octagon, beating genuinely dangerous strikers like Thiago Santos, Gegard Mousasi, and Anderson Silva himself. It’s not like he had some huge decline, either; he’s 4-2 in his last six MMA bouts and those two losses were to Sean Strickland, a man custom-made to exploit Hall’s weakness to pressure, and Andre Muniz, a pure grappler.

While he was too flawed and to make a real run as a UFC contender, particularly with his tendency to get easily backed to the fence, he’s not losing to a non-fighter.

“Le’Veon Bell, I hope you bring your best,” said Hall. “I know I will. Thank you to Most Valuable Promotions for the opportunity.”

“As soon as Most Valuable Promotions approached me about joining the Paul-Silva pay-per-view, I told them, ‘I want in,’ and didn’t care who the opponent was,” Bell said. “Uriah Hall is going to feel my punching power and tap out like he’s getting submitted. He is not built like me.”

The card also features Ashton Sylve vs Braulio Rodriguez and Chris Avila against Mike Varshavski.