{"id":658626,"date":"2026-05-09T17:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/658626\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:50:27","slug":"johnny-manziel-to-fight-in-boxing-match-at-ufc-apex-vs-influencer-bob-menery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/658626\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Manziel to fight in boxing match at UFC Apex vs. influencer Bob Menery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heisman winning QB Johnny Manziel<\/a> is set to fight at the UFC Apex in a boxing match, per Andreas Hale of ESPN<\/a>. The fight is set for May 23rd in Las Vegas against social media influencer Bob Menery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight will be promoted by Kick streamer Adin Ross\u2019 Brand Risk Promotions, which is known for pitting celebrities against content creators in boxing matches,\u201d Hale wrote. \u201cManziel, 33, had been linked to a celebrity boxing match with Menery recently, but the expectation was the fight would take place in Miami. <\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, it will land in the Apex, which isn\u2019t by accident, as UFC CEO Dana White has expressed significant interest in the fight. White and Menery have had a tumultuous relationship; the UFC CEO said he\u2019d bet $10,000 that the social media influencer would back out of the fight. Now, White will host it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The former Texas A&M <\/a>standout has had a tumultuous post-collegiate career on and off the field. After flaming out of the NFL following his selection by the Cleveland Browns, Manziel tried his hand at other leagues, such as the CFL and an arena football-style Fan Controlled Football league.<\/p>\n

Recently, he\u2019s been a mentor to Heisman runner-up Diego Pavia<\/a> (Vanderbilt), who ended up going undrafted in 2026. Pavia eventually signed with the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s giving me what to look out for, what it\u2019s like, how to stay in the process,\u201d\u00a0Pavia said at the NFL Scouting Combine.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cAnd, you know, he\u2019s given me some good advice, for sure. And he always reaches out, too, checks up on me, makes sure I\u2019m good, and he just, like, he\u2019s just a friend to me, you know? And so he\u2019s giving me some mentorship. He\u2019s been around me, he\u2019s been around my family. He\u2019s just a great person for those that really don\u2019t know him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrity boxing is all the rage these days, at least within combat sports. Manziel is the latest former athlete outside a ring or cage to try his hand at fighting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been over a decade, but Manziel was the star of stars when he played QB for the Aggies. Winning the Heisman as a redshirt freshman, \u201cJohnny Football\u201d was the hottest thing since sliced bread.<\/p>\n

During that 2012 season, Manziel threw for 3,706 yards, 26 touchdowns, nine interceptions, a 68% completion percentage, 1,410 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns. He added career highs in 2013, throwing for 4,114 yards, 37 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, a 69.9% completion percentage, 759 rushing yards and nine rushing scores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heisman winning QB Johnny Manziel is set to fight at the UFC Apex in a boxing match, per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,243700,82],"class_list":["post-658626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-johnny-manziel-11-tivy","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}