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UFC fighter Tim Elliott was multi-tasking Saturday night as he pounded away at his opponent, accusing him of beating his ex-girlfriend ... something the opponent's manager calls "reckless slander."

Elliott was dominating the flyweight fight to an empty arena, when Elliott appeared to say, "I heard you choked your girl in 2018. Are you a woman beater? She messaged me." The opponent, Jordan Espinosa, responded, "Did she? You don't know the whole story." Elliott shot back, "I know enough," to which Espinosa said, "You don't know s***."

Elliott won the fight by unanimous decision. When it was over, Espinosa's manager, Bryan Hamper, called the accusation, "Reckless slander."

This is a Ted Lasso-type feel-good moment, as 2 cops saved a dog that fell in icy waters.

The rescue went down Thursday in the village of Manteno, Illinois, when the PD got a call, "There's a big dog in the water about four houses down."

That canine's a lucky dog, thanks to officers Quincey Spears and Jessica Rourke, who answered the call and sprung into action. They got a paddleboat to get near the struggling K-9, using a pole to help reach the dog, to no avail.

So, their only remaining option was to jump in the frigid water, along with a few good Samaritans, to save the pooch.

Officer Spears explained what happened ...  "When he was walking on the ice, he went into a spot where the sun was beating down on the ice, and it actually potentially melted that part of the ice, which the dog fell in."

The Fresno Police Dept. was ordered to release body cam video that graphically shows yet another chokehold-related homicide ... and it's extremely hard to watch.

The incident occurred in 2017 ... Joseph Perez had suffered a mental breakdown and police were called to help. As cops tried restraining the 41-year-old, you hear him scream, "I can't breathe," and "Let me redeem myself."

The officers tell him to calm down and breathe, but Perez is clearly fighting for air and it becomes a vicious cycle -- the longer his airway is restricted, the more agitated he becomes and the officers use his resistance to justify more compression.

Paramedics arrived and told a cop to sit on the backboard they brought to carry Perez into the ambulance. The backboard was placed on Perez's back as his head was face down on the ground.

Perez died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Perez's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers, the City and County of Fresno and the ambulance company.

Neil Gehlawat, the lawyer for the Perez family, says, "Compression asphyxia during restraining is all too common, and we hope to expose this pervasive tactic used by law enforcement officers across the country."

Tessica Brown tried getting out of another sticky situation by crowdfunding ... or at least that's what an imposter had people believing before GoFundMe dropped the hammer.

So get this ... someone tried to capitalize on Tessica's Gorilla Glue fame and misfortune by posting a GoFundMe page pretending to be her. The imposter even posted what appears to be a $186k hospital bill.

As you can see, the imposter claimed the hospital was charging her for her medical bills after it found out she was raising money online. This person even roped in Tessica's real GoFundMe dilemma ... ya know, the alleged fraud claims that were later debunked.

The imposter's "bill" looked legit enough to dupe some peeps, 'cause the account raised around $500.

Don't worry, the imposter never got the dough because a rep for GoFundMe tells TMZ it suspended the account as soon as it got wind of it.

The fake account was sketchy to begin with ... 'cause the imposter's goal was only $25k but the bill totaled nearly $200k.

Hidden within this stretched-out snap is an English actor who began his career in the early 2000s.

Since his start this famous fella has been in a number of films, his best work includes "The Night Of", "Rogue One", "Nightcrawler", "Venom" and so much more!

He is currently nominated for best actor at this year's Critics' Choice Awards for his role in the film "Sound of Metal".

Jeff George Jr. says he's so hellbent on following in his famous dad's NFL footsteps ... he's straight-up willing to sacrifice his life for an opportunity to play in the league.

The oldest son of the legendary quarterback broke it all down for TMZ Sports ... saying he's telling NFL scouts he's that committed to being The Shield's next great QB.

"They're getting a guy that's willing to put his life on the line for this," 24-year-old George Jr. said of what NFL teams will get from him if they draft him. "I don't want to do anything else."

"I put my blood, sweat, tears into this game. I love it more than anything."

JG2 started his college football career at Illinois and then went to Michigan before landing at Pitt, where he only played in 2 games in the 2019 season. He's 6'3", 220 lbs and just like his dad, he's got a cannon for an arm.

COVID screwed up his plans to show out in 2020 -- but George Jr. is now trying to showcase his skills for NFL teams at Brandon Marshall's House of Athlete combine in South Florida.

Look, Jeff has been around football his entire life and he knows what it takes to succeed in the NFL ... all he's looking for is a shot.

His message to teams is simple ... "You're gonna get a guy who's the hardest worker in the building, super competitive and ultimately has a drive to win."

Of course, Jeff's dad, Jeff George Sr., was the #1 overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft -- and played 13 seasons in the league, mostly for the Colts and Falcons. He led the NFL in passing yards in 1997.

Tim Matheson says he's no longer getting death threats or money demands from the person who was pissed about his tweet at Melania Trump ... so he's moving on with his life.

We broke the story ... the "Animal House" star filed a report with the LAPD last month claiming he got a series of escalating messages from someone online ending with the threat, "pay me big bucks or I will kill you."

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Tim hasn't had any further communication with the suspect since contacting police, so he doesn't want to pursue charges against the unidentified suspect.

We're told the case is now closed.

As we reported ... Matheson tweeted in January -- shortly after Joe Biden's inauguration -- that it was wonderful to have a First Lady who can speak English.

He apologized days later and admitted his tweet was "stupid, ignorant,& foul," but obviously some of the backlash he got was too much to ignore.

Carey Mulligan's good looks were meant to be seen!

Here is a 23-year-old version of the actress looking darling with her pixie cut at a party in New York City back in 2008 (left). This was the same year that she made her Broadway debut.

And 13 years later ... Mulligan was seen sharing her beautiful on-screen presence with audiences at home during a talk show interview earlier this year (right). The now 35-year-old has since worked on a number of projects, and is currently nominated for best actress at the Critics' Choice award for her role in the film "Promising Young Woman".

She's got winning looks!

The question is ...

Jack Dorsey is hawking the very first tweet ever -- being his, of course -- to anybody who wants exclusive digital rights ... and people are already willing to pay millions for it.

The Twitter CEO posted a link Saturday to a site called Valuables By Cent, where folks can buy/sell authenticated tweets with their autograph. Jack, too, was putting a tweet up for auction ... his own from 2006, when he wrote ... "just setting up my twttr." It's the tweet that kicked off every other tweet thereafter, so it's historic -- and the bids bear that out.

At the moment, the highest offer for ownership of his tweet sits at $2.5 MILLION -- courtesy of Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi ... who's been in a bidding war of sorts with another tech entrepreneur in the crypto world, Justin Sun, who was upping his price exponentially.

Sun seems to have started at $500k, and then incrementally upped it to $2 mil, but it looks like Estavi swooped in with $500k more ... there haven't been any further offers since. Per Cent's rules, if anyone wants to outbid Estavi -- they'll have to throw down $2.75 million.

If Jack's tweet sells at this amount ... it would follow suit with tons of other online transactions that have flown off virtual shelves at eye-popping values among influencers, artists and sports leagues, like the NBA ... which has been dabbling in this for a couple of years.

For instance, you can actually buy NBA highlight reels and awesome moments from games through NBA Top Shot ... which tends to sell these "moments" in packs. Some of the more elite highlights -- like some of LeBron's and Zion's -- have sold for upwards of $200k!

Might sound nutty, but selling digital assets like this is a thing ... which they call NFTs (non-fungible tokens). They're essentially one-of-a-kind collector's items that are recorded on a blockchain network -- the same system that supports and tracks crypto -- and which aren't interchangeable, unlike something like Bitcoin, which can be swapped back and forth.

Idaho is attempting to pass legislation that would make it illegal for government entities to enforce mask mandates -- something folks there are celebrating by rolling out burn barrels and having their children fan the flames with actual face coverings.

The supposed state-wide protest happening Saturday is being dubbed #FreeIdaho or #BurnTheMask -- and it was organized, in part, by Idaho State Representatives Dorothy Moon and Heather Scott ... who plugged the event earlier this week in a joint video they filmed.

The politicians say they support the "grassroots" movement to show disapproval of different mandates that have gone into effect across the state over the past year. There's no state-wide mask mandate, but about 9 counties and 10 ID cities have such emergency orders.

A website they published for this cause also laid out a number of different "burn sites" all throughout Idaho -- with a major one being held right outside the Idaho Capitol steps.

Check out these photos that show several different adults and families encouraging their kids to grab surgical masks by the handful and toss them into the flames of metal barrels with fire inside.

It's pretty eerie to watch ... because the kids, who probably don't know any better, laugh with glee as they get rounds of applause for each time they throw a mask into the embers.

Of course, the pandemic is far from over ... and while the cases are dropping nationwide and Idaho's only had about 1,800 confirmed deaths related to COVID ... it's no time to abandon mask-wearing entirely, something some states are choosing to do as the vaccines roll out.

Like we said, about a dozen Republicans in the Idaho state legislature intro'd a bill this past week that would outlaw mask mandates, including in schools and universities. Private businesses would still be able to enforce mask-wearing, however, if passed.

A bill being proposed in California would make it illegal to advertise certain sections of retail stores as just for boys or just for girls ... including clothes and toys.

The bill, AB 1084, was just introduced into the California legislature late last month by Assemblymembers Evan Low of the Bay Area and Cristina Garcia of Los Angeles ... which aims to do away with gendered signage in big department stores of 500+ employees.

In other words, places like Target, Walmart or Kohls that sells childcare items, children's toys/products or children's wardrobe wouldn't be able to steer folks to certain sections based on sex -- it would just be a free-for-all ... where parents and kids could roam freely to what they liked. They'd also be prohibited from dividing the floor space up by gender.

There's more ... any websites these stores operate would have to change their categories too -- so instead of boys/girls (whatever) ... it'd read "kids," "unisex" or "gender-neutral." We should also note, some of these stores have already started designating certain sections of their floor as gender-neutral -- like Target, which apparently made the move in 2015.

As for why they're trying to make this official ... supposedly, for fairness and equity for kids, who might not like what a gendered section has to offer and want something from the other side. For example, low publicly cited an anecdote from a fellow staffer ... whose 9-year-old daughter was confused on why she had to go the boys toy section to get a science kit.

Oh, and if this passes ... it wouldn't just be a slap on the wrist for those who don't comply -- these big-box chains would be fined $1,000 each time they violate the would-be law.

The reactions to the bill -- which could be introduced in committee for discussion/voting as early as March 21 -- are quite mixed ... many are criticizing it as unnecessary and frivolous (especially amid a pandemic) but others support it and say it's a step in the right direction.

On the heels of Dr. Seuss being muzzled for racist depictions in a few books, another beloved childhood memory is also being called problematic ... one Pepe Le Pew.

The Looney Tunes character fell into the crosshairs of NYT columnist Charles M. Blow -- who wrote an op-ed titled "Six Seuss Books Bore a Bias" ... where he argued racism is deeply embedded into American culture (especially pop culture) and fed to kids at a young age.

He brought up cartoons like Speedy Gonzales and Mammy Two Shoes -- the former being another LT character he says pushed racist stereotypes against Mexicans and the latter being a Tom & Jerry character portrayed as a heavyset Black maid who speaks with a caricaturized voice. You usually just see her legs/feet ... but her full figure was depicted too.

Those two examples specifically address his race concern, but he threw in Pepe as well as another 'toon that telegraphed the wrong message ... saying the French skunk normalized and perpetuated rape culture. Of course, a lot of people had very different reactions -- some agreeing, and others lambasting Blow for suggesting a drawing could sway real-life behavior.

To that, Blow responded ... "RW blogs are mad bc I said Pepe Le Pew added to rape culture. Let’s see. 1. He grabs/kisses a girl/stranger, repeatedly, w/o consent and against her will. 2. She struggles mightily to get away from him, but he won’t release her 3. He locks a door to prevent her from escaping." It's true ... Penelope Pussycat was often in Pepe's clutches.

Still, some say he's reaching to make a point ... and that the cartoon was never meant to be interpreted that way, adding it was all in good fun and that no child would absorb Pepe's behavior as something to be mimicked. Fair enough, but the cartoon theory isn't novel.

The great Dave Chappelle once touched on this exact issue in a stand-up special of his, "Killin' Them Softly," where he TOO brought up Pepe Le Pew ... and flat-out called him a rapist. He discussed other kid shows that looked much different through an adult lens -- like "Sesame Street" characters ... which he hilariously compared to troubled adults.

Jackboy's driver literally couldn't stay in his lane, according to cops, and that's what ended up leading to the rapper's Georgia arrest on a gun charge.

Monroe County cops say they pulled over the blue Lamborghini SUV Jackboy was traveling in last month when an officer noticed the driver failed to maintain his lane.

According to the report ... the cop smelled marijuana in the vehicle during the traffic stop, so he called for backup to conduct a search.

Cops say during the search, 2 unregistered firearms were discovered in the passenger side glove box where Jackboy was sitting -- a 9mm and a Glock.

According to the report ... Jackboy said he didn't know the guns were in the vehicle, and the back seat passenger claimed they were his. Problem is, according to the report, police ran Jackboy's record and discovered he was a convicted felon -- so it's illegal for him to be within arms reach of a firearm.

The "Pressure" rapper was arrested and booked for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He bonded out later the same day for $2,500, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

On the bright side, police say they let Jackboy and his crew off with a verbal warning for a small amount of weed they found -- and he seemingly didn't have to eat any of it this time.

Beyonce paid homage to one of her fans who tragically died Friday after a 2-year battle with brain cancer, and it was truly moving.

Lyric Chanel's journey was chronicled by her family on Instagram. 600,000 people followed her, along with numerous celebs including Cardi B and, of course, Beyonce.

Things took a turn Wednesday, when the family was told Lyric only had days to live. After her passing Friday, an account posted in her honor -- Go Gold for Childhood Cancer.

Beyoncé connected with Lyric back in September. Lyric caught Bey's attention after posting a video of her years earlier, singing Bey's "Love On Top."

Beyonce's tribute song features a montage of Lyric photos and videos ... it's a celebration of her life, showing her singing and dancing to a mashup of "Brown Skin Girl," "Halo" and "Love On Top."

Notice how she switches out the word "baby" with "Lyric."

Lyric was 13.

Kanye West has still got the Midas touch when it comes to kicks, because his new offering from Adidas sold out in ONE MINUTE!!!

The Yeezy 450 in Cloud Whites flew off the virtual shelves, shutting down critics who thought the weird silhouette was off-putting.

There was a mad scramble on the Adidas app and YeezySupply.com, with lots of fans walking away from their computers empty-handed. They were clearly not quick on the draw, and you know what they say about snoozin' ...

To be specific ... the shoes became available Saturday at 7 AM ... if you were later than 7:01 you'd be SOL.

As for pricing ... the shoes retail for $200, but some of the folks who snagged them are asking north of $500.

Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras looked very much like pre-pandemic times, but there were actually some precautions taken.

An estimated 35,000 people watched the annual parade at the Sydney Cricket Ground. That's a ton of folks, but way less than the 200,000 that lined Oxford Street in Mardi Gras's past.

Rita Ora headlined the event ... she got emotional, at one point telling the crowd she was fighting back tears, telling everyone how much she missed performing during the pandemic. Other performers included The Wiggles and singer G Flip.

Australia has fared way, way better than the U.S. They've had just over 29,000 COVID cases and a total of 909 deaths. From our eye, most people were not wearing masks, but the fact is ... Australia has had stringent rules and apparently it has paid off.

When you look at the pics through an American lens, it seems they've pulled out all the stops, but a number of people who attended called this year's event "muted" compared to past Mardi Gras.