Boxing

LeBron James is getting the highest possible praise from Muhammad Ali's ex-wife -- who's anointed the NBA star the "Muhammad Ali of basketball" for the way he's addressed racism in America.

Khalilah Ali -- who was married to Muhammad from '67 to '76 and has 4 kids with the boxing legend -- tells TMZ Sports she was extremely impressed with Bron's reaction to the racist vandalism at his L.A. home.

She says Muhammad would not only be proud ... he'd be a huge fan.

"I think Ali would be very supportive of him because Ali went through the same thing in the past," Khalilah says.

"He would really look up to James."

Dana White tells TMZ Sports he has 3 simple words for Oscar De La Hoya -- "WHAT THE F**K?!"

The UFC honcho is furious with the boxing legend after Oscar publicly trashed the Mayweather vs. McGregor negotiations ... calling it a "joke of a fight" that could kill the sport of boxing.

Earlier Wednesday, White posted a video on Instagram showing Oscar praising a UFC vs. Boxing fight four months ago ... and then trashing it now.

White says Oscar is coming off as an insecure hypocritical weirdo for changing his position so drastically -- and says it makes it sound like Oscar has no confidence in the boxing match he's promoting, Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.

You gotta watch the clip ... Dana goes absolutely nuclear -- plus, he gives the latest on the Floyd vs. Conor negotiations.

The entire Mexican world will be rooting for Canelo Alvarez to knock GGG the HELL OUT ... that's according to Mexican boxing superstar Mikey Garcia.

Of course, Gennady Golovkin fights in what he describes as the "Mexican style," something that he and his trainer, Abel Sanchez, have used to endear themselves to throngs of fans south of the border.

We talked to Garcia -- an undefeated champion and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport -- and he tells us style or no style, all of Mexico is riding with Alvarez.

Warning: THIS IS VIOLENT.

A boxer in Indiana started off his pro career this weekend by obliterating his opponent's face with a shot that sent the guy through the ropes and out of the ring!

Even more impressive ... this was ROUND 1.

The fighter is Mikey Dahlman -- a promising middleweight who made his pro debut Monday against Rick Ogden at the Civic Center in Hammond, IN.

The entire fight lasted 2 mins and 14 secs. Obviously, Mikey was fired up.

If Floyd Mayweather doesn't get off his butt and sign the paperwork to fight Conor McGregor, Manny Pacquiao WILL ... so says Manny's promoter, Bob Arum.

Conor has been snuffing Floyd in the media for days now ... goading him to sign his part of the deal to make their potentially half a billion dollar fight a reality.

When we talked to Arum out at Craig's in L.A. he told us if Floyd is too busy feinting at the fight, Manny is actually ready to PUNCH, telling our guy after Pac Man's July 1 fight is done, they're totally game.

BTW ... Conor is looking for around $100 mil for the fight, for those prices we here at TMZ Sports would like to officially throw our hats into the ring as well.

We have a full staff, pick someone McGregor.

Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor is a circus that could literally ruin the sport of boxing ... so says one of the sports biggest stars, Oscar De La Hoya.

De La Hoya wrote a scathing open letter to boxing fans ... imploring them to send Floyd and Conor a message by NOT spending money on the super fight.

"Only we can shut the circus down by making it clear that we won’t pay to see a joke of a fight and telling our casual-fan friends that they shouldn’t either."

De La Hoya goes on to say, "It’s a win-win for them. It’s a lose-lose for us. We’ll be $100 lighter and we will have squandered another opportunity to bring boxing back to its rightful place as the sport of kings."

Oscar admits McGregor is a great MMA fighter, but just ain't a boxer ... and that could be devastating to boxing.

Conor McGregor's bustin' his ass training ... while Floyd Mayweather, well ... he's walkin' in a fashion show with Paris Hilton in France ... and we have the video.

Mayweather strutted down the runway in a white leather jacket at the Philipp Plein fashion show Wednesday in Cannes with Hilton, Sofia Richie, and "hot felon" Jeremy Meeks ... while Eva Longoria watched.

As we previously reported ... McGregor has totally ditched MMA training ... and is solely focused on boxing, in anticipation of the Mayweather-McGregor superfight.

Money clearly ain't worried.

Watch out, Kendall Jenner ... Floyd's comin' for your job.

Conor McGregor has put his MMA training on the back burner to prepare for his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather ... TMZ Sports has learned.

We spoke with McGregor's rep who says The Notorious is "only training boxing" while working out in Dublin to focus on the super fight.

That's right ... the UFC lightweight (and former featherweight) champ ain't practicing mixed martial arts.

Dana White announced last Thursday that McGregor's side of the deal is complete ... and the UFC star has been posting training pics directed at Floyd on Instagram ever since.

While the fight still isn't a done deal, Floyd has remained optimistic, telling reporters over the weekend that if he un-retires for a fight, "it's a 90% chance it's against Conor McGregor."

Floyd Mayweather hasn't agreed to terms finalizing the super fight with Conor McGregor ... but that hasn't stopped the 2 superstars from facing off ... as awesome wooden statues!!

The same sculptor behind the incredible Muhammad Ali and McGregor wood statues decided to add to his collection with a larger than life version of Floyd.

We spoke with James O'Neal, who says T.B.E.'s statue took about 5 months to complete before showing the three fighters off at the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame ceremony this upcoming weekend.

As for his next project, O'Neal says he's keeping with the fighter theme and has already started working on a statue for MMA star Cris Cyborg.

Adrien Broner will spend the next few days behind bars after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge from 2014.

As we previously reported, the boxer was arrested on April 20 in Kentucky on a warrant stemming from a failure to appear in court for a 2014 disorderly conduct case. While he was getting arrested, Broner told cops he had been shot at earlier that night.

According to Fox19, Broner just appeared in court and pled guilty to the disorderly conduct charge. The judge sentenced him to three days in jail, which he'll start serving immediately.

Boxing superstar Keith "One Time" Thurman will have to wait a little while for that huge money fight he's been calling for ... after undergoing elbow surgery that will sideline him for months.

Thurman has revealed he went under the knife in April to remove calcium deposits from his right elbow -- a situation he was dealing with BEFORE his epic March 4th throwdown with Danny Garcia.

The 28-0 fighter still appears to be bruised up from the procedure -- but says he hopes to be fighting again by the end of the year.

We got Thurman out right before the surgery in April and he told us he's still gunning for a marquee bout with a huge star like Manny Pacquiao.

He's also down for a rematch with Garcia. We're down for that too.

Conor McGregor's deal is in place to fight Floyd Mayweather -- now, it's up to Dana White and the Mayweather camp to nail down the other side.

The UFC superstar made the announcement late Wednesday night -- saying he reached an agreement with his UFC bosses that shores up how he will get paid if he steps into the ring with Floyd.

Conor has said the deal he was eyeing will pay him around $100 million.

Floyd has said he wants double or triple what Conor gets. It's up to Dana White to now hammer out a deal with Mayweather and his manager, AL Haymon.

McGregor issued a statement on TheMacLife.com saying, "It is an honour to sign this record breaking deal alongside my partners Zuffa LLC, The Ultimate Fighting Championship and Paradigm Sports Management."

"The first, and most important part of this historic contract has now officially been signed off on. Congratulations to all parties involved. We now await Al Haymon and his boxer’s signature in the coming days."

Conor is clearly confident the two sides will reach a deal soon -- because he was shopping for yachts last night ... and he posted a pic with Conor Jr. saying, "let's go get some boxing ones now son."

Floyd Mayweather rolls deep in Vegas -- as in, dude keeps SIX insanely expensive white RR whips worth an estimated $3 MILLION.

Here's the lineup:

Phantom Limited Edition: $580k
Ghost Extended Wheelbase: $330k
Wraith: $300k
Drophead Coupes: $500k each ($1m)
Phantom limousine: Price unknown (we're guessing high 6 figures)

By the way, this is just part of his Vegas collection -- don't forget, he's got even more crazy expensive cars at his other places. Plus a jet. And he's currently shopping for a $20 million yacht.

Think about all the new toys he'll buy if he ever signs the Conor McGregor contract ...

New police footage of Adrien Broner's bullet-ridden SUV shows exactly how close the boxer was to being shot the night he was arrested in Kentucky ... and AB's lucky to be alive.

As we previously reported, Broner was arrested in April on a warrant stemming from a failure to appear in court for a previous arrest in 2014. During the stop, cops noticed bullet holes in Broner's rented Chevy Suburban.

In the police video obtained by TMZ Sports, Broner tells cops he was targeted while leaving a bar in Cincinnati earlier that night by unknown assailants. Broner claims they shot at him because he's rich and famous and they were jealous.

The video shows bullets struck the SUV in the driver's side doors and back driver's side window -- as well as the roof and trunk.

Broner was driving the car -- meaning the bullets came dangerously close to striking the boxer.

A championship level boxer -- signed with Mayweather Promotions -- says he's so broke, he's driving Uber to make ends meet.

The fighter is Thomas Dulorme -- whose last fight in January was on Showtime Extreme. Before that, he had fought Terrance Crawford ... one of the top fighters in the world.

So, you can imagine how crazy it was when a boxing fan ordered up an Uber in Vegas back in April and recognized Dulorme in the driver's seat.

Dulorme explained that he was part of Floyd's famous TMT (The Money Team), but says, "I'm part of the team. Not the money."

TMZ Sports spoke with the 27-year-old who says he's explored breaking his deal with TMT -- but he believes it would cost him too much money ... money he doesn't have in the first place.

We reached out to Mayweather Promotions for their side of the story but haven't heard back.

Clearly, there are issues here.

By the way, the passenger in the video tells TMZ Sports he gave Dulorme a good rating on Uber.

Floyd Mayweather's days of trashing his dad are LONG OVER -- in fact, TBE tells TMZ Sports why he owes his entire boxing empire to his pops!

Of course, Floyd Jr. and Floyd Sr. have a very famous, very nasty feud that left them estranged for years. At one point, Sr. offered to train fighters to BEAT his own son.

Oh, and don't forget that other time Sr. said he used Floyd as a human shield to keep Jr.'s maternal uncle from shooting him with a shotgun!!! Seriously!!

But all that's water under the bridge ... Floyd Jr. says he owes "all the thanks to my dad."

He also says Sr. gave him the single most important piece of advice he ever got about his career ... and he never forgot it.

Floyd also wants everyone to remember he ain't no bitch -- and used to be known as a "knockout artist" before his body broke down.

He ain't lyin ...