Boxing

Anthony Joshua landed the bout, but there was no shortage of big-name opponents lining up to fight Jake Paul ... including Terence Crawford, fresh off his Canelo Alvarez win, according to the CEO and cofounder of Most Valuable Promotions!!

"As soon as we knew we were going to move away from Gervonta Davis, we had a list of opponents. And the three names Jake gravitated towards were Ryan Garcia, Terence Crawford, and Anthony Joshua," Nakisa Bidarian told Babcock shortly after the Dec. 19th megafight was announced. "And there were probably 30 fighters who accepted to fight Jake. AJ being one of them, Crawford being another, and AJ is the one that we came to an agreement on."

When we followed up on Bud, asking if he was actually down to fight Jake, Nakisa responded ... "Yes, 100%."

Jake Paul claims Tommy Fury turned down a TON of money to meet him in the boxing ring again ... but TNT insists that's not the full story.

Paul sounded off on social media Tuesday morning ... saying while plenty of fighters agreed to step in for Gervonta Davis, one person in particular didn't.

"Guess who didn't say yes even for $15M. Bitch made you and your father are, who controls everything you do. You are not a man. You are a boy. Daddy's little boy."

Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua is actually real -- the fight is set to go down in a matter of weeks!!

After his matchup with Gervonta Davis was scrapped, El Gallo will now face the former heavyweight champion in a professional bout on December 19 at the Kaseya Center in Miami ... and Netflix will be streaming the whole thing.

Joshua is by far Paul's biggest challenge to date -- he's not in his 50s (he's 36), he's not a former MMA fighter, and he's not washed.

Chris Eubank Jr. isn’t sugarcoating a thing -- there's REAL bad blood heading into his rematch with Conor Benn ... telling TMZ Sports he straight-up doesn't respect the guy.

The sequel to Eubank Jr. vs. Benn is slated for November 15 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the UK -- a must-watch for any boxing fan, but especially if they tuned in to the first fight on April 26.

Eubank Jr. (35-3) guarantees Part Two will be better ... 'cause he's promising to take his opponent out in "devastating fashion."

The hits kept coming during Rod Stewart's illustrious career ... but his son Sean encountered a hit machine he probably wishes he never met in his debut as a professional boxer over the weekend.

Sean, 45, got knocked out in 15 seconds by 27-year-old streamer BDave in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday. The KO was reportedly a record for the Misfits Boxing banner, which promoted the fight.

Check out the video ... Rod's eldest son started out aggressive, controlling the center of the ring by pressing and leading with quick jabs. But BDave stayed calm, unshaken by the flurry of punches thrown, waiting for his opening.

Sydney Sweeney's filmed some pretty intense scenes throughout her career ... and she's just revealed she was battered and bruised while working on her new boxing flick "Christy."

The actress sat down for an interview with The Guardian and recalled taking a hands-on approach while filming scenes in the ring ... which would often leave her with concussions and bloody noses.

Sydney wasn't put off by all the rough stuff on set, though ... she said she loved the experience of stepping into the ring and putting up her dukes.

Sydney Sweeney's taking one last lap around the ring ... sharing a ton of pics from behind the scenes of "Christy" and thanking everyone involved.

The actress dropped the pics the day after the film's wide-release in theaters ... with one featuring standing in the ring toe to toe with the film's namesake, Christy Martin.

The two are wearing complimentary outfits -- Christy does love her pink, after all -- and, they're grinning ear-to-ear.

If Sydney Sweeney's serious about getting in the ring for a good cause, she could have one of the greatest women's boxers EVER in her corner -- 'cause Claressa Shields tells TMZ Sports she's down to train the actress for a charity boxing match!!

We caught up with the undisputed heavyweight champion out in NYC this week .. and she said every woman should lace up the gloves and throw some hands at least once.

It would make sense four Sweeney ... considering she just played Christy Martin in a new movie, and trained her ass off for the role. She teased this week she could really take a charity bout.

Boxing star Chris Eubank Jr. says he's (still) open to fighting Jake Paul ... but tells TMZ Sports he doubts "El Gallo" would ever step into the ring with him, claiming the YouTuber-turned-boxer avoids real boxers!

We spoke with the 35-3 fighter after Paul pulled the plug on his big November 14th fight with Gervonta Davis, after the undefeated knockout artist was sued by a woman who claims he got physical with her.

So, with Jake looking for a new opponent (Nate Diaz and Francis Ngannou's names have been mentioned), we asked Eubank Jr. if he still had a desire to scrap with Paul ... a match-up he mentioned in the past.

3:10 PM PT -- TMZ Sports has obtained Antonio Brown's mug shot ... showing the Super Bowl champ sporting a track jacket and buzzed haircut.

Antonio Brown is under arrest and back in the United States ... about six months after the former NFL superstar was accused of trying to shoot and kill a man at an Adin Ross boxing event in Florida.

TMZ Sports is told 37-year-old AB was extradited this week, with United Arab Emirates authorities shipping the retired wideout back to the States from Dubai, where he was allegedly attempting to evade the reach of the American legal system.

We're told Brown was accompanied by federal agents to the New York Metropolitan Area, where he was turned over to local police. He is scheduled to be sent back to South Florida, where the incident went down.

Blueface is out of prison and calling out names ... Jaidyn Alexis, Chrisean Rock and Angela -- who barely made it 5 minutes with him -- for FAILING to hold him down while he was behind bars!!!

Drama has been sky high since Blueface was released this week ... Jaidyn threatened to beat up Chrisean for being too close to her kids, but in a shocking turn of events, Blueface says Chrisean was more of a ride-or-die than Jaidyn was!!!

Blueface says he wasn't hung up on them sleeping with other people while he was locked up for 21 months, but he criticized Jaidyn for blowing the $90K he gave her and being more focused on experimenting with women than his well-being!!!

Work hard this hump-day and see if you can guess the wealthy star flaunting his cash money! Here are a few hints:

He's one of the most famous boxers in the world, and his defense is legendary ... no coincidence his nickname is "Money!"

Jake Paul absolutely eviscerated Tank Davis after their fight was scrapped just days before it was slated to go down ... calling his former opponent an "actual walking human piece of garbage."

El Gallo unloaded the social media blows on Davis minutes after it was announced Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions would no longer move forward with the Nov. 14 bout ... saying top to bottom -- the guy was a "nightmare" to work with.

"The unprofessionalism, the bizarre requests, the showing up hours late to shoots," Paul said on X. "To the numerous arrests and related accusations and lawsuits. If you support this man you support the most vile sin a man can commit."

You can cross Francis Ngannou's name off the list of potential replacement opponents for Jake Paul with his bout against Gervonta Davis in jeopardy ... 'cause the former UFC champ tells TMZ Sports no amount of money would entice him to fight El Gallo!

We spoke with 39-year-old Ngannou after his name began floating around this weekend as a fill-in for Tank -- as the boxing star's latest legal trouble has forced Most Valuable Promotions to consider pulling the plug on the November 14th scrap.

Among the replacement names ... Ngannou, Terence Crawford, Ryan Garcia and Nate Diaz.

Chase DeMoor is looking to wipe the floor with Andrew Tate on December 20 ... not only for boxing respect -- but also to satisfy all the people who hate his opponent's guts.

TMZ Sports caught up with the reality TV star and Misfits Heavyweight champ outside Brickhouse Boxing Club on Friday ... and chopped it up about going up against the polarizing personality/former kickboxing champ.

Long story short ... DeMoor wants to make him pay.

Gervonta Davis was sued on Thursday by a woman who alleged the star boxer roughed her up at a popular Miami strip club earlier this week.

The plaintiff -- Courtney Rossel -- claimed she and Davis had a private, intimate relationship over the last five months ... but she said it was anything but a smooth ride with the pugilist.

She wrote in the lawsuit -- which was filed in a Miami-Dade County court -- he beat her up and threatened her on several different occasions.