England legend Rio Ferdinand launches Pro Boxing Career

By Roberto, Sports Editor

Manchester United and West Ham centre-half, Rio Ferdinand, was regarded a prolific player in his era and retired two years ago. Despite this, Rio is not done with his sporting endeavours as he has chosen to become a professional boxer!

In his legendary career, he has made an unbelievable 504 appearances in the Premier League and has made 81 clean sheets, resulting in 0.16 clean sheets per match. An exceptional 81% tackle success is phenomenal and 18.93 passes per match is brilliant for a centre-back. In the Prem alone, he has made 1,718 clearances. All in all, he was an absolute master of reading and destroying the opposition, a true legend of the beautiful game.

Back into the present, Rio has recently announced that he is becoming a pro boxer. It was released through a Betfair advert and from BBC Sport on Tuesday 19th September. Rio, the man himself, stated, “I’m doing this because it is a challenge!” Later, he went on to say, “I’ve won titles but now, I’m aiming for a belt!” Rio is following the footsteps of former Birmingham City midfielder, Curtis Woodhouse and former Crystal Palace forward, Leon McKenzie in becoming a boxer and has now posted video clips of himself training from the last couple of months. But strangely, BBC general secretary, Robert Smith, released the fact that they had not yet received an application from Ferdinand for a legal boxer’s license. Interestingly, he had previously met Anthony Joshua in May, following Joshua’s win versus Wladimir Klitschko in the ring.

Ferdinand says he’s committed to this demanding task but has set himself a lofty target of achieving a title belt…