BSO was the first to report that negotiations were happening between Ex-NBA All-Star point guard Deron Williams and future NFL HOF running back Frank Gore for a boxing exhibition match on the Jake Paul-Tommy Fury undercard.
I can now confirm those negotiations are complete, and it will be a four-round exhibition match.
As we reported in the past, but Williams and Gore have experience in boxing and MMA.
Williams actually owns an MMA gym.
It was just another day for Williams, who’s turned his longtime passion for combat sports into a post-NBA career. He’s a part-owner alongside Saud at Fortis MMA, one of the top gyms in the country. One of its fighters, Geoff Neal, will headline the UFC’s Fight Night on Saturday night against top-five foe Stephen Thompson in Las Vegas.
Williams’ love for fighting began at an early age. He admits his first sport didn’t involve dribbling a basketball but wearing a singlet and taking opponents to the ground. Williams says he won the Texas state title at 67 pounds and at 112 pounds and wanted to continue wrestling through high school.
But because it fell during the same time of the year as basketball, he was forced to pick only one. It’s safe to say he made the right choice, leading The Colony High School to the 5A Texas State semifinals his senior year while averaging 17.6 points, 8.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. He’d go on to sign with Illinois, a program he helped take to the 2005 national title game.
As far as Gore, he has been training for the last six months for a boxing match, so even though the fight is coming up soon, he will be in good shape.
Instead, the NFL’s third-leading rusher of all-time has focused his eyes on a new sport: boxing.
“I’ve been training for both — football and boxing,” Gore told NFL.com. “I’ve always loved boxing, so that’s what I’ve been doing. And we’re trying to make a fight happen. If we do that, you’ll see me in the ring.”
Flip the page for training videos from both Gore and Williams.