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Chad Johnson impresses early, knocked down late in fight described as ‘a White Castle 4am fight’

Chad Johnson made his boxing debut in an exhibition fight. He impressed the first three rounds and then got knocked down in the fourth round. But, he lasted the distance of the four-round fight.

Former NFL player Chad Johnson takes part in the weigh-in ahead of his June 6 exhibition boxing match against Brian Maxwell on June 5, 2021 at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Miami Gardens, Florida. Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

Chad Johnson performed pretty well for a 43-year-old making their boxing debut on Sunday night against Brian Maxwell in Miami. The former NFL wide receiver was making his debut on the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul undercard. Maxwell entered the bout with five career MMA fights and three bare knuckle fights.

In the four two-minute rounds, we saw plenty of wide-open action and not too much defense. Fun! But there were no judges in the exhibition, so we scored the bout ourselves below.

Round 1

Johnson opened with a nice jab out of his southpaw stance, and pretty clearly won an exchange of blows with about 30 seconds left in the round. 10-9 Johnson for sure!

Round 2

“This is White Castle 4am vibes” said The Kid Mero, a Showtime star pointing out the anger you could see in Johnson’s face after a semi-tackle exchange

Round 3

A much closer round than the first two, and it looks like Johnson might be getting a bit tired out there. He spent most of the round staying away with his hands low, and not too many blows exchanged. We can call this 10-9 Maxwell.

Round 4

Johnson gets knocked down, but pops up right back up after spending only a couple seconds on the mat. His conditioning might have started to become an issue in the later rounds, but that’s a 10-8 to Maxwell.