A former NFL running back was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for operating a large-scale dogfighting operation that inflicted death and serious injury on hundreds of pit bulls, the Justice Department announced.
LeShon Johnson, who played for three NFL franchises between 1994 and 1999, was convicted in an Oklahoma federal court last August on six felony counts: three counts of possessing a dog for use in an animal fighting venture, two counts of selling a dog for that purpose, and one count of selling, transporting, and delivering a dog for use in animal fighting.
In addition to the prison term, Johnson will serve three years of supervised release and has been ordered to pay $30,000 in fines.
Following his conviction, the 55-year-old surrendered 190 dogs to the federal government — the largest number of dogs ever seized from a single individual in a federal dogfighting case, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors say Johnson had been running the operation, known as “Mal Kant Kennels,” since at least 2007, breeding and trafficking pit bulls while cultivating what he touted as “champion and grand champion” bloodlines specifically engineered for fighting. Under the twisted rules of the underground dogfighting world, a “champion” dog has three recorded fighting victories, while a “grand champion” has five.
A 2025 indictment laid out the scope of Johnson’s operation, with prosecutors stating he “marketed and sold stud rights and offspring from winning fighting dogs to other dog fighters looking to incorporate the Mal Kant Kennels ‘bloodline’ into their own dog fighting operations.”
The sentencing closes the book on a case that shocked animal welfare advocates given the sheer scale of the operation and the number of animals involved. Federal investigators say the case stands as one of the most significant dogfighting prosecutions in recent memory, both for the size of the kennel operation and for Johnson’s past profile as a professional athlete.
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