Johnny Boxing? Johnny Pugilism? Johnny Fisticuffs?
Whatever he ultimately settles on, Heisman Trophy winner Johnny ‘Football’ Manziel is switching sports, as revealed by Brand Risk Promotions.
The retired NFL quarterback and former Texas A&M star will box influencer and actor Bob Menery at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on May 23.
Promoted by Kick streamer Adin Ross and hosted by UFC CEO Dana White, the bout will air on a number of online platforms, if it even happens at all. As White recently said, he’s betting $10,000 that Menery ducks the roughly 6ft, 200-pound Manziel.
‘Menery hits me up and says, “Who are you betting on?” I said, “I’m betting on you don’t even show up, that’s my bet,”‘ White told his Instagram followers last month. ‘Menery never does anything he says he’s going to do… There’s no way 49 percent of people believe in Bob Menery and that he’s going to show up.’
Now sober and hosting his own podcast, Manziel recently opened up to The Daily Mail about an allegedly obsessed fan he filed a restraining order against in February.
Manziel will box influencer and actor Bob Menery at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on May 23
MaKenzie Calame posted this picture on TikTok, showing her with then-Aggies QB, Manziel
Manziel’s NFL career lasted only two years and was hampered by his admitted partying
In court documents seen by The Daily Mail, Manziel accused MaKenzie Calame of ‘obsessive, erratic, and harassing hallucinations and conspiracies directed at/or relating to [him] across multiple social media platforms.’
Manziel went into greater detail with the Mail.
‘But it wasn’t anything too serious,’ he told the Mail. ‘It just looked like crazy talk… I continued to ignore it and then over the last year to two years, it’s started to get more frequent.
‘And over the last three months, it has really ramped up to a place of fear for me. It’s scaring me… [and] people in my family are really upset.’
A Texas judge ultimately agreed with Manziel and granted the restraining order.
Manziel has not played football since a stint in the now-defunct Fan Controlled Football league in 2022. Prior to that, he’d played a season with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes but tossed seven interceptions to just five touchdowns and quickly found himself in the since-shuttered Alliance of American Football League.
Things looked dramatically different in 2014, when Manziel was taken by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the NFL Draft. But after partying his way across two NFL seasons, Manziel fell from grace and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder before entering a recovery program.
Manziel has never been known as a fighter, but this is a well-worn path. Recent former NFL running backs such as Le’Veon Bell and Adrian Peterson have ventured into boxing, while retired defensive end Charley Powell had a notable career in the ring that included losses to Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson.
Many more successful boxers grew up playing football, including Deontay Wilder, Terence Crawford and Hank Lundy. And of course, former heavyweight champion Ken Norton’s son and namesake later became a ferocious linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys.
