Boxing

God came down from above to wake Tyson Fury up from a 12th-round knockout Saturday ... and did it so Fury and Deontay Wilder could have an epic rematch -- so says Wilder himself.

"God lifted that man up from that knockout," Deontay tells TMZ Sports ... "So now when we have the rematch, it's nothing that's going to be said."

Wilder and Fury put on a show at Staples Center in their heavyweight tilt -- all highlighted by a vicious 12th-round left hook from Wilder that put Tyson flat on his back.

"The last knockdown was a devastating one, where the eyes rolled in the back of the head," Deontay says ... "9 times out of 10, a referee would have stopped that immediately."

But, the ref didn't ... and Wilder's convinced it's all 'cause a higher power wanted to see Wilder-Fury II in a few months.

"I think he had an army of prayers around him that night, and I think God don't make mistakes, though. I think God woke that guy up for the rematch."

As for what that means for the highly anticipated Wilder-Anthony Joshua fight ... Deontay says he "don't give a f*ck" about that scrap anymore -- at least for now.

Deontay says Joshua had his shot to make the mega-fight, but right now, he's solely focused on the rematch with Tyson.

"He thought he was the only one in this sport, the biggest thing in this sport," Wilder said of Joshua.

"But, you're not. Me and Fury, that's all it's about -- me and Fury. I don't give a f*ck what they talking about ... He's on the backburner. Ain't nobody talking about him."

YouTube superstar Deji says he wants REVENGE on his arch nemesis, Jake Paul, after their PPV boxing match back in August ... but there's just one small thing keeping that from happening.

"He's too p***y to fight me again."

The first fight was wild ... with Jake getting the victory when Deji's camp threw in the towel in the 5th round of their bloody slugfest.

Deji was spending some of that hard-earned fight money on Rodeo Drive this week when he was asked about the possibility of the 2 YouTubers beating each other up in the ring again -- but it sounds like it ain't happenin'.

Why?? -- "He's too scared to lose the title."

But, Jake Paul ain't the only guy Deji's beefing with right now -- turns out, he's in a real-life feud with his own brother, KSI.

KSI is reportedly furious with Deji after his lil bro posted KSI's bank statements online. Deji also made some scandalous claims involving his brother and a woman.

But, Deji says the feud runs deeper than that -- explaining, "There's a lot of stuff my brother's done."

Doesn't seem like they're even close to burying the hatchet at this point which is crazy considering how close they were.

Deji also says he's got a big problem with KSI's crew, "The Sidemen" -- a group of British YouTube stars -- and says he's never really been cool with them.

12/5 -- Laila released a statement ... saying she's okay and she's praying for the elderly man who was injured. Laila says the man was walking behind her car when she was backing up. Laila also says her 7-year-old daughter, Sydney, was in the car at the time of the accident.

Laila Ali was involved in a serious accident in Calabasas that left a pedestrian seriously injured ... TMZ has learned.

The accident went down Tuesday afternoon in Calabasas. We're told Laila accidentally hit an elderly man while driving through the parking lot of a shopping center. Paramedics and L.A. County Sheriff's deputies quickly responded to the scene.

Medics treated the victim on the scene, but he was eventually taken by ambulance to a hospital and is in stable condition ... according to our law enforcement sources.

Muhammad Ali's daughter remained at the scene and spoke to Sheriff's deputies once they arrived. The former boxer -- turned host/actress/author -- was not arrested or cited, for now -- and we're told the Sheriff's Department is investigating this as an accident.

We've reached out to Laila's reps for comment, but haven't heard back yet.

Story developing ...

Floyd Mayweather ain't gonna like this ...

George Foreman tells TMZ Sports it doesn't matter if Money goes ANOTHER 50-0 ... he'll never consider him the greatest boxer of all-time -- 'cause he ain't a heavyweight!

"If Floyd Mayweather goes out and gets a real beer belly and comes back and challenges the heavyweights, I'll call him all that," George tells us.

"But right now, he's thin as a rail."

Floyd's 50-0 and owns victories over Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley and just about every other great fighter of this era ... and even has a win against one of the UFC's best too (sorry, Conor).

But, Foreman clearly doesn't care ... telling us ya gotta beat the BIG boys to wear the GOAT crown.

"He's got to say, 'I'm one of the best.' That's all he can say."

Ice Cube's gotta say it was NOT a good day when Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury's heavyweight championship fight ended in a split decision draw -- in fact, Cube's straight up pissed.

We got him storming out of L.A.'s Staples Center moments after the boxers fought to a 12 round tie, and he called the outcome "bulls**t" because he thinks Wilder was robbed.

True enough, Wilder did knock down Fury twice -- including in the 12th -- but he got up both times.

Just like the match ... opinions are split. We also talked to boxer Andre Berto leaving the bout and he thought the result was fair, and he's looking forward to a rematch.

Michael Rappaport, on the other hand, wanted more from Deontay.

If you think Khabib has NO CHANCE to beat Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match, one of the biggest underdogs in sports history is here to tell you ... YOU'RE WRONG ... and he's proof.

We talked to James "Buster" Douglas in NYC, the man who stepped into the ring back in 1990 as a 42-1 underdog to Mike Tyson, and WON ... and he told us not to count out Khabib.

"Anybody got a chance, anything can happen."

We know what you're thinking, Buster was a boxer and Khabib is primarily a wrestler, but BD doesn't care, he thinks Khabib's combat sports pedigree make him a threat.

"He's an athlete."

BTW -- the fight between Khabib & Floyd is still just talk, but both sides have said they're interested and willing to do it for the right price.

Mayweather is getting older and Khabib did drop Conor with a big right ... so maybe Buster's right.

Manny Pacquiao says fans are still pissed off about the Floyd Mayweather fight leaving a bad taste in their mouths ... and there's only one way to fix it.

Rematch.

TMZ Sports spoke with Pac-Man about his plans after his big fight with Adrien Broner in January ... and Manny's calling out the retired boxing superstar to give the fans what they want.

Although it's been well over 3 years since their first fight in 2015 ... Manny says he's constantly getting asked about Mayweather's doings ... and wants to finally put it all to rest.

To hell with your "science" ... Deontay Wilder gets freaky with his fiancee whenever he wants -- even BEFORE huge fights ... so says his girlfriend herself.

Of course ... TONS of fighters abstain from shagging before big bouts -- 'cause they believe using up the testosterone in the bedroom leads to poor performance in the ring.

Hell, 'memba when Mick from the "Rocky" movies famously said, "Women weaken legs"??

Well ... when we got Telli Swift -- Deontay's GF -- out in L.A. ... she said the boxing superstar doesn't buy any of that -- and will bone before the Tyson Fury fight if he wants!!

"Deontay does what Deontay wants to do. If he wants to have sex, I'm gonna give him sex!"

Telli says Deontay's banged her right before plenty of fights ... and, in fact, tells us the longest he's abstained from the sheet shufflin' before a fight was just 3 days.

Unclear how long it'll ultimately be for Wilder before he scraps with Fury tonight ... but we know one thing for sure -- Telli's all in for the post-game sex!!

The strongest man on the planet and the baddest dude on "Game Of Thrones" says there's no way in hell he could fight Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury ... 'cause The Mountain says they'd END him!

We got Hafthor Julius Bjornsson -- aka Thor, the 2018 World's Strongest Man -- out at LAX when he told us if he fought the heavyweights ... it'd be lights out for him.

"Right now they are the best, and there's no way a guy like myself that doesn't train in the sport can just go in there and beat them."

The tale of the tape is pretty interesting -- The Mountain comes in at 6 feet 9 and over 400 pounds. Wilder tips the scales at 6'7", 212 -- and Fury comes in at 6'9", 257.

Despite the massive weight difference ... Hafthor ain't even giving himself a chance to last 1 punch -- let alone 1 round.

"If I were to be punched by a guy like Fury or those guys in the face, I would probably get knocked out the first hit."

Remember, Bjornsson did spar with Conor McGregor -- and dominated the Irishman -- but it's clear he knows his limits.

Deontay Wilder is being called out for hypocrisy by a heavyweight contender who loved Wilder's passionate rant about racism, but HATED the fact Wilder visited President Trump.

After Wilder told Tyson Fury that black people have been fighting in this country for 400 years -- he went off on a radio host who asked him to explain the comment.

Wilder exploded with a passionate rant about how black people have been oppressed and mistreated in the U.S. -- and he was offended that the radio host pushed him on the topic.

But, undefeated boxing star Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller has a problem with Wilder ... claiming he undermined his own message by meeting with President Trump back in May.

Wilder had visited Trump's White House with Sylvester Stallone and others as part of the group paying homage to Jack Johnson ... after President Trump pardoned the late boxer for a 1913 conviction many believe was racially motivated.

Miller -- a legit Top 5 heavyweight contender who's lined up to fight either Wilder or Anthony Joshua this year -- says Wilder got used by Trump to curry favor with African Americans ... and it's a stain on his public image.

"LeBron James, Steph Curry, a lot of other guys didn't want to go up to the White House because they knew what Trump was doing was just using black athletes as a shade to hopefully get black voters to get on his good side."

Miller sees this as Deontay talking out of both sides of his mouth and, although he loved Thursday's rant, he's got a message for Deontay when it comes to racial issues.

"We have to have the same energy all the time."

Evander Holyfield says Tenshin Nasukawa is in deep trouble -- because Floyd Mayweather is gonna "beat the daylights" out of the Japanese fighter when they box on New Year's Eve.

The Real Deal touched down Thursday night in Los Angeles -- where he'll be attending the big Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury heavyweight title fight on Saturday at Staples Center.

Holyfield -- one of the greatest heavyweights of all time -- says he thinks Deontay could put Fury to sleep with that deadly right hand ... and he's excited for what could be one of the most action-packed events of the year.

As for Mayweather, Evander acknowledges that Tenshin's age -- he's only 20 years old -- could give him an edge during the 3-round exhibition fight ... but when it comes to doing it, Floyd's gonna put a hurtin' on him.

"You playing [Floyd's] game, so he's supposed to win," Evander told us ... "He's not gonna fight anybody that can beat him!"

Floyd Mayweather had to come out of pocket more than $600,000 to settle charges brought against him by the SEC for his role in a cryptocurrency scandal ... officials have announced.

As we previously reported, Floyd and DJ Khaled both went to social media in 2017 to promote a crypto coin called Centra.

The problem according to the Securities and Exchange Commission ... neither star disclosed that they were getting paid to promote the coin ... which is a violation of federal law.

Turns out, Floyd received $300,000 to promote the coin and DJ got $50,000.

Officials previously said the company behind the coin was operating illegally, misleading investors and several of the execs listed on the company website don't really exist. The whole thing was essentially deemed a giant scam.

The SEC brought charges against both Floyd and Khaled -- but they both were able to settle their cases behind closed doors after writing big checks.

Officials say Floyd ponied up $300k in disgorgement (the money he made for promoting the coin) plus another $300k in fines and another $14k in interest.

Khaled paid $50,000 in disgorgement plus $100,000 in fines plus another $2,725 in interest.

Mayweather -- who was cooperative with investigators -- also agreed NOT to promote any kind of currency for the next 3 years. Khaled agreed to hold off for 2 years.

George Foreman doesn't know who's gonna win the MASSIVE heavyweight title fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury on Saturday, but he does know one thing ...

BOTH men woulda kicked the ass of a young George Foreman.

We talked to George, a two-time heavyweight champ and the oldest man to ever win the crown, and he told us he thinks both Wilder and Fury would have been a little too much for him to handle.

"I don't think I could've been able to get a good shot on Tyson Fury at all. He's too elusive."

Big George saw a whole different set of problems with Wilder.

"With Deontay Wilder, I'd have to protect myself so much I'd been in danger from round 1 to the final round."

As a matter of fact, Foreman thinks so highly of the two fighters he says their matchup on Saturday is going to be an EPIC brawl for the ages.

"I can say that, when it does take place, it'll be the world's greatest heavyweight matchup. For the world. Not America. A world championship boxing match. And, there's nothing better you can put together. Not today."

So here's the thing ... we love George, and fully admit he's forgotten more about boxing than we'll ever know. But, we're not so sure about this take. Dude was a BEAST, and beat an UNDEFEATED Joe Frazier.

But, honestly ... we're still afraid of him, so we didn't wanna argue.

Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury couldn't wait til Saturday to put hands on each other ... with the two boxers getting in a HEATED scuffle at their press conference -- and it almost came to blows.

The undefeated heavyweight champs were lining up to face-off on Wednesday ... when Deontay started jawing with Fury -- "I’m going to knock your ass out, I promise you that!!"

There's more ... "You talking about how you’re people have been fighting for 200 years, my people have been fighting for 400, and they’re still fighting to today!!"

It's tough to make out what Fury says in response ... but the dude was NOT having it ... and the 2 eventually traded shoves before getting separated.

Oscar De La Hoya says Dana White should "shut the f*ck up" and stop worrying about Golden Boy Promotions -- and focus on his own company.

That's just part of the fiery statement the boxing legend issued in response to Dana White calling him an irresponsible "cokehead" for allowing Chuck Liddell to fight last weekend.

Remember, White was PISSED -- claiming Oscar cared more about money than Liddell's health and said all sorts of terrible things about De La Hoya.

Now, Oscar has responded ... saying, "Dana is so small and threatened by our success with DAZN and now in MMA that he is bringing up news from a decade ago to try to stay relevant."

"Boxing has entirely rejected him. And, MMA fighters are now realizing they don’t have to risk their lives just so he can get rich."

"Golden Boy and I are moving forward and are bigger than ever. Dana should shut the f*ck up and try to figure out how to save his own company."

The comment about DAZN is in reference to the $365 MILLION deal Oscar put together for Canelo Alvarez as part of a 5-year, 11 fight contract.

These guys clearly hate each other's guts -- and we're guessing this feud is far from over.

Tenshin Nasukawa -- Floyd Mayweather's opponent in the upcoming Tokyo fight -- just sent a message to the boxing legend with his fists ... saying, "I’m not sure if a 42-year-old can react to these."

20-year-old Tenshin's an up-and-coming star in Japan -- one RIZIN fighter told TMZ Sports he's the Michael Jordan of kickboxing over there -- but Floyd is set to throw down with him anyway next month.

The fight's only supposed to be an exhibition -- per Floyd, "I'm moving around with the guy for 9 minutes" -- but, clearly, Nasukawa ain't takin' the bout lightly.

Tenshin's already thrown out a few impressive highlights in the ring since Floyd announced the tilt was back on ... and now the kickboxer is sending Money a message on social media.

The vid shows Tenshin poppin' off lightning-quick moves ... and some seriously fast jabs -- writing he's not sure how Floyd (who's 41, btw) can keep up.

Per Mayweather, there won't be any kicks involved in the scrap ... but dude's clearly gonna have to contend with some quick hands regardless.