Chad Johnson will face a winless opponent in his boxing debut June 6 on the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul undercard.
The 43-year-old Johnson, a six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, will battle Brian Maxwell in a cruiserweight exhibition next month at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships announced on its Twitter page Thursday afternoon that Maxwell will oppose Johnson as part of this Showtime Pay-Per-View event.
The 33-year-old Maxwell’s past three fights have been BKFC bouts. The Roanoke, Virginia, resident is 0-3 in BKFC fights and 0-1 in professional boxing matches.
Maxwell was stopped in the second round of his pro boxing debut by Gaspard Pierre (2-0, 2 KOs, 1 NC) on February 20 in Miami. He has been beaten by technical knockout in two of his three BKFC contests.
Maxwell also has gone 2-3 in professional mixed martial arts matches.
The addition of Johnson to the Mayweather-Paul undercard should bring even more mainstream attention to the event. Johnson, who legally changed his last name to Ochocinco in 2008, was a polarizing player throughout his 12-year NFL career, has appeared on “Dancing With the Stars” and remained in the limelight after he retired from football.
The other two fights on the Showtime Pay-Per-View portion of the Mayweather-Paul undercard are legitimate boxing matches.
In the co-feature, Jean Pascal and Badou Jack will meet in a 12-round rematch for Pascal’s WBA world light heavyweight title.
Quebec’s Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) barely beat Jack (23-3-3, 13 KOs) by split decision in their 12-round bout in December 2019 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Pascal dropped Jack in the fourth round and got up from a 12th-round knockdown to defeat Sweden’s Jack on two of three scorecards (114-112, 114-112, 112-114).
Former IBF/IBO/WBA 154-pound champ Jarrett Hurd (24-1, 16 KOs), of Accokeek, Maryland, and Luis Arias (18-2-1, 9 KOs), of Boca Raton, Florida, also will square off in a junior middleweight match on the Mayweather-Paul undercard.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.