Former NFL running back Adrian Peterson might be stepping into the boxing right to square off against a poker player from Texas.
The two went viral last May after they came to blows in a poker room in Houston. Another patron in the room recorded video of the fight and it quickly made the rounds on social media.
TMZ Sports reported on Wednesday that Peterson and Joe “Baby Joe” Castaneda agreed to a contract this week. The latter combatant has signed the deal with Celebrity Boxing and Peterson is expected to sign in the coming days.
“Time to get in shape and sharpening up these hands to put on a show!” Castaneda told TMZ. “Baby Joe is here for all the smoke! South Houston, let’s get it!”
Poker Room Rematch
The scrap would be a rematch of the fight that took place at JokerStars poker club in Houston on May 27. The state doesn’t have legal online poker. Thus, these clubs are the only options for poker players in the Lone Star State. That’s why many Texans look for trusted online poker sites to play legally and safely from home.
A video of Peterson and Castaneda duking it out went viral and showed the fight moving across the room with numerous punches thrown and landed.
The battle left both players injured, but they eventually returned to the table and police weren’t called. Peterson said the two were friends and that alcohol played a role in the fracas, but cooler heads eventually prevailed.
“Me and the guy, we’re cool,” Peterson said. “We’ve known each other. It was literally like a brother situation. We agreed to disagree, we had our words, and we threw blows – and that was it.”
Castaneda later said Peterson’s mouth led to the dust-up. The former Oklahoma Sooner insulted one of Castaneda’s friends, he said, and “that’s when the melee kind of broke out.”
“My nose was leaking really bad,” Castaneda told TMZ. “It was definitely a lot of blood. It was kind of gory.”
This wouldn’t be the first boxing match for Peterson. He stepped in the ring against Le’Veon Bell in 2022 and suffered a technical knockout at the hands of the former Steelers and Jets running back in the fifth and final round.
The potential rematch with Castaneda comes after Peterson was ordered by a Houston judge in September to turn over assets to settle a $12 million debt. The issue stems from a $5.2 million loan that the former NFL MVP took out in 2016. Penalties, interest, and attorney’s fees have accumulated since then to make the debt much larger, according to reports.
