Boxing
NFL Great Frank Gore Delivers the Goods as He Launches His Career After Football
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sports7 in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
Get to know John Moriello betterUpdated15 May 2022
Frank Gore’s first official boxing match ended in the same way the exceptional NFL running back’s collisions with cornerbacks guarding the edge usually did: violently.
Gore delivered a no-doubt-about-it knockout Saturday night in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Frank Gore gets off to a sound start to officially launch his boxing career
Frank Gore was at least as much brute force as he was finesse in rolling up 16,000 rushing yards in a 16-year NFL career, so it’s no surprise that his style in the boxing ring is less “float like a butterfly” and more “sting like a bee.”
Gore, 39, put those pugilism skills on display, defeating Yaya Olorunsola via a fourth-round knockout with a punishing overhand right in Biloxi, Mississippi. The future Pro Football Hall of Famer running back left Olorunsola, now 0-2 as a professional, unconscious on the canvas and retreated immediately to his corner to celebrate.
Strictly speaking, it was his second fight, having lost a four-round decision to former NBA player Deron Williams last year in an unsanctioned bout on the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley rematch undercard.
Frank Gore’s new career is not without controversy and concern
Football and boxing carry similar concerns when it comes to the potential effects of repeated blows to the head. According to Yahoo Sports, that issue surfaced last year in the lead-up to Frank Gore’s Dec. 17, 2021, bout with Deron Williams. An MRI exam showing possible effects of 16 seasons and 3,735 rushing attempts in the NFL concerned Florida Athletic Commission officials enough that they would not sanction that fight.
“I played 16 years in the league and I’m rich, man,” said Gore, who last appeared with the New York Jets in 2020. “I don’t want to say $300,000 is nothing, because where I am from, it’s a very, very poor place and that is life-changing money. But I’m rich and to me, it’s nothing. I didn’t care what I was getting. I fought because I wanted to, not because I needed money.”
Gore earned nearly $63.3 million in salary in his NFL career, according to Spotrac.com.
“I was passed, and I talked to the doctors,” Gore continued. “They all told me there was nothing wrong with me. I have five kids and I want to be there for them. I’m not crazy. Why would I risk my health and watching my kids grow up for $300,000?”
Gore added that two neurologists and two radiologists ruled him fit to fight, and he passed a mental acuity test. The website reported Florida does not require radiologic or neurologic exams before issuing a fight license. That potentially leads to promoters moving cards there featuring fighters they believe could not get licensed in states with stricter rules.
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