Apparently it’ll be an exhibition and not a sanctioned professional bout.
The American entertainment industry is all about reviving stuff that was popular 20-30 years ago, so why not add celebrity boxing to the mix?
According to ESPN, Chad Johnson, formerly known as Chad Ochocinco before switching back to Chad Johnson, is scheduled to make his professional boxing debut on June 6th on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather vs. Logan Paul. His opponent is likely to be another celebrity and/or athlete in a four- or six-rounder.
Johnson is best known for his days as a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, making six Pro Bowls and getting First-Team All-Pro honors on three occasions. His outsized personality and creative touchdown celebrations made him one of the more prominent names in the NFL, and for a few years he legally changed his name to Chad Ochocinco because his uniform number was #85. We’ll ignore that the Spanish is grammatically incorrect and acknowledge this is a thing he did.
The 43-year-old famously called out Andre Berto way back in 2009, which was ridiculous for several reasons, namely Berto being an actual high-level boxer at the time and Johnson… not being one, plus Chad is way out of Andre’s weight class. Nevertheless the interest Chad has had in getting into the boxing ring has been there for more than a minute. Perhaps he’s looking to recoup the money he lost when he bet on Jorge Masvidal to beat Kamaru Usman at UFC 261.
The Mayweather vs. Paul pay-per-view will be shown on both Showtime and Fanmio PPV. Actual relevant boxing matches include former unified junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd taking on Luis Arias at middleweight, while Badou Jack and Jean Pascal have a rematch of their entertaining light heavyweight encounter from 2019, which ended in a split decision win for Pascal. This event will be in Johnson’s hometown of Miami, Florida and take place a day after Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr on Triller PPV.