Jose Canseco goes down easily 10 seconds into Barstool PPV fight

Tom Gatto

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Jose Canseco goes down easily 10 seconds into Barstool PPV fight image

What's the old saying? Root for injuries? If you pull for such happenings during matchups you don't like, then you sort of got your wish Friday night.

First, an explainer: Former MLB star Jose Canseco, 56, was in a pay-per-view boxing match against a 21-year-old Barstool Sports intern nicknamed Billy Football. The build to the fight was Canseco and the loose Stool talkers trading insults. Canseco tried to sell the idea that he was a crusader against the company's crudeness.

Then fight night happened and Canseco maybe, kinda, sorta took a dive.

He went to the canvas 10 seconds into the bout after absorbing a series of blows, including a borderline illegal one. Eventually, Canseco got to a knee, grimaced and then grabbed his right shoulder, claiming it was hurt. He told the referee that he couldn't continue. (He later said he hurt the shoulder months earlier.)

MORE: When Canseco headed a ball over the wall

So the referee had to stop a fight that was the main attraction of the Rough N' Rowdy PPV card from West Virginia.

If, for some reason, you bet on this fight, then you didn't get hurt.

(Who's "Canceso"?)

Canseco did predict a Round 1 knockout during the hype. We thought he was saying that he would deliver the KO.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.