GLENDALE, Arizona – Uriah Hall has the same objective as Le’Veon Bell.

Hall’s plan is to win their four-round fight Saturday night and immediately become a candidate to box Jake Paul if the social media sensation defeats Anderson Silva in the main event at Desert Diamond Arena.

The 38-year-old Hall, a retired UFC contender, and the 30-year-old Bell, a former Pro Bowl running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, will both make their professional boxing debuts in a cruiserweight clash Showtime will televise as part of a five-fight pay-per-view show Paul and Silva will headline (9 p.m. ET; $59.99).

Hall announced his retirement from mixed martial arts August 10, but the possibility of eventually opposing Paul intrigued the Jamaican-born former MMA standout enough to battle Bell on this undercard. In Bell, Hall will encounter a novice who knocked out another retired NFL running back, Adrian Peterson, in the fifth round of their exhibition September 10 at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.

“I’m not gonna fight Anderson,” Hall told “Morning Kombat” co-hosts Brian Campbell and Luke Thomas during an open workout Wednesday outside of Desert Diamond Arena. “I mean, I have too much respect for him. The last fight was even more difficult. It was like beating up my dad. It sucks. So, I love him to death. Jake Paul, definitely. That was the motivation that really got me into this. I said, ‘If there’s a potential chance to fight this dude, I’ll do it, so I can expose him.’ That’s it.”

Hall stopped Silva in the fourth round of what stands as the final fight of Silva’s iconic career in UFC. Almost two years to the day later, Silva (3-1, 2 KOs in boxing) will try to do what two other retired UFC fighters, Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley, couldn’t do by beating Paul (5-0, 4 KOs).

New York’s Hall, who went 18-11 (13 KOs) in his MMA career, didn’t pick a winner when he broke down the Paul-Silva fight for Campbell and Thomas.

“So, I know stylistically, you know, we’ve got what? We’ve got age and we’ve got the gap, and a lot of people are focused on that,” Hall said. “You know, Anderson Silva has a lot of wear and tear and mileage and all that stuff. And Jake is young, of course. Possibly, he’s gonna be a favorite. But Anderson is a ‘G,’ you know? He’s been in this sport for so long, and he’s the type of guy to adjust, and that’s why he’s doing stuff like this. He loves that challenge, that mentality. … And I feel like he's gonna be 95 years old, still doing this stuff. Where, you know, I don’t know Jake’s real motive. If he says he wants to really become a boxer, then kudos to him. I know it’s hard to step in there and do that stuff.

“But I think that fight is gonna be a feeling-out process for the first maybe couple of rounds, because Anderson likes to kinda say, ‘OK, where you at? What you got? What can you do? What can I do?’ And then I don’t see Anderson backing up too much. If he does, I just see him being so elusive. And I don’t know about chin factor. People are gonna say age plays a [part] in that, but you know, Anderson has a good chin, man. Boxing, with the 10-ounce gloves, plays a difference – if that makes sense.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.