Boxing

Angela Carini bowed out of the biggest fight of her life in just 46 seconds after eating several big shots from her controversial opponent, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif ... who failed a gender eligibility test in 2023, but has been permitted to compete in Paris.

25-year-old Carini, competing for Italy, faced 25-year-old Khelif on Thursday ... but the scrap didn't last very long. Less than halfway through round one, Angela decided she'd had enough, and the fight was over.

Khelif's presence in Paris has given rise to massive controversy.

Elon Musk's talking tough once again ... accepting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's invitation to brawl -- one year after he vowed he'd fight Mark Zuckerberg.

President Maduro called out Musk on national television this morning ... challenging Musk to fisticuffs in a bizarre rant where he told Elon anyone who came up against him "dries up."

You should watch the video for yourself ... but, ultimately Maduro's making it clear -- EM only needs to name a time and place for the brawl, and Maduro will come ready to kick his ass.

Joe Giudice and Antonio Sabato Jr. will fight this December ... and the guy charged with maintaining order in the ring?? WWE legend and Olympic gold medalist, Kurt Angle!

"Hey, this is Kurt Angle, I just signed on with Official Celebrity Boxing to referee in The Battle of the Italian TV Stars, Antonio Sabato Jr. and Joe Giudice in the Bahamas December 7," the WWE Hall of Famer said, making the big announcement.

Celebs fighting has become all the rage over the last few years, but CB is the OG ... promoting fights between everyone from Lamar Odom and Aaron Carter to Tonya Harding and Paula Jones.

Ryan Garcia's ex was granted a restraining order in L.A. after accusing the star boxer of threatening her family ... though the former couple tells TMZ Sports they've talked and are committed to peacefully fixing their issues.

Ryan's estranged wife, Andrea Celina Velarde, beelined it to court last week, requesting a TRO ... accusing her superstar ex of being increasingly out of control and erratic.

In the docs, Andrea claims Ryan showed up to a restaurant where she was dining with her sibling on July 19 and caused a scene, threatening her brother and causing them to leave. She says he followed her home and sat outside in his car for 10 minutes.

Jake Paul is doubling down on his support for Donald Trump -- squaring up with the former president at an event over the weekend ... and telling his millions of followers the country needs No. 45 back in the Oval Office now more than ever.

27-year-old Paul -- who has been increasingly outspoken on his political stance following the July 13 assassination attempt -- got some one-on-one time with Trump at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville ... and used the opportunity to playfully pretend like they were getting ready to scrap.

But there's certainly no beef between the two ... as Paul told his 26.7 million Instagram supporters to exercise their right to vote come election day -- but made it clear whose side he's on, and it ain't Kamala Harris'.

Floyd Mayweather got some one-on-one time with Travis Scott at the rapper's wild show in Milan this week ... getting backstage access to the whole concert.

TMZ Sports has learned -- La Flame's team welcomed the boxing legend with open arms at his "Circus Maximus" tour stop in Italy ... making sure to give him the VIP treatment.

The show was so lit, nearby citizens thought the area was experiencing an earthquake as Scott performed his banger "FE!N" a whopping eight times in a row -- but it was actually 80,000 ragers losing their minds during that portion of the show.

Francis Ngannou is speaking into a mic for the first time since his 15-month-old son died suddenly back in March ... and his words are nothing short of heartbreaking.

Ngannou made an appearance on Joe Rogan's "JRE MMA Show" Tuesday and he talked about a wide range of subjects, including the moments he experienced in the leadup to the death of his son, Kobe.

Ngannou revealed his son had mild inflammation of the brain ... which led to him fainting twice. The first incident happened while they were in Cameroon, but he said the doctors found nothing.

Jake Paul outlasted "Platinum" Mike Perry on Saturday ... defeating the Bare Knuckle FC and former UFC fighter via sixth-round TKO.

Jake handled Mike for the majority of the bout ... knocking Perry down in the first two rounds. He appeared gassed as the match went on, before ultimately catching a second wind and taking care of business.

Jake ended up getting the victory in the 6th ... and shortly after his hand was raised, he called out yet another UFC fighter -- Alex Pereira.

Tennis great Nick Kyrgios is bent out of shape that certain people -- AKA the "Hawk Tuah" chick -- are not getting famous the old-fashioned way.

Kyrgios was exercised over Haliey Welch's appearance at Jake Paul's fight against Mike Perry.

Haliey got quite the reaction, and to that Nick said, "No correlation between fame and actually being decent at something anymore," punctuating his criticism with a laughing emoji.

Everyone from Muhammad Ali, to Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather, have fought in the United States ... so when Eddie Hearn says the upcoming "Riyadh Season" event in L.A., featuring a bunch of top-notch fights, as well as a performance by Eminem, will be the biggest in the history of boxing in 'Merica, that's saying a lot!

"I mean, it's the biggest night of boxing I think America's ever seen," Hearn told Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs nightly on FS1).

The August 3 event goes down at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles ... and features a main event bout between Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov, in addition to scraps between Andy Ruiz and Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller, Jared Anderson and Martin Bakole, "Pitbull" Cruz and Jose Valenzuela, amongst other compelling matchups.

Mike Perry pulled out all the stops to troll Jake Paul ahead of their big fight on Saturday ... commissioning a custom pendant showing El Gallo getting his bell rung -- and it's quite the pricey piece.

Perry's been proudly sporting the new jewelry leading up to the bout ... rocking it at his open workout and press conference for the showdown in Tampa, FL.

The pendant shows Jake's face covered with bloody cuts and a boxing glove on his left cheek ... something Perry's hoping to do in the ring at Amalie Arena in a few hours.

Mike Perry will be across from Jake Paul in just over 24 hours (more on that in a minute), but before fight night Platinum made a huge announcement, telling us he's launching his very own combat sports promotion, Dirty Boxing Championship!

"We are friends for fighters and fans," 32-year-old Perry told Babcock on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs nightly on FS1).

"Me and my team have been working on this for quite some time," Mike added. "We've tried to hint at this, we've been making way and we're ready to make the announcement that this is coming very soon. We're very close to being sanctioned by commissions and we're ready to get some athletes and get a card together and put a fight on sometime this year."

3:02 PM PT -- Ryan Garcia's attorney, Michael A. Goldstein, tells TMZ Sports ... he and his client are hoping to reach a quick resolution in the case -- as the star boxer has already reimbursed the Waldorf Astoria for the damage he caused.

In addition, Goldstein says Garcia has expressed sincere remorse for his actions ... and has also apologized to employees at the luxury hotel as well.

"The past several months have been difficult for Ryan and he understands he has reached a crossroads in both his personal life and career," Goldstein said. "Going forward, he knows the focus must be on his well-being and mental health issues which have been strained."

11:30 AM PT -- Jake Paul was asked about Conor McGregor's comment during his own press conference just minutes ago ... and he went OFF on the UFC superstar.

Paul said he's going to embarrass the entire BKFC with what goes down with Mike Perry on Saturday ... calling the promotion's athletes "brawler, idiot, street fighter dudes."

Paul also accused McGregor of ducking him ... saying the dude needs to stay off the drugs and get back to training -- and then maybe they can talk about booking a fight after getting a few wins under his belt.

Conor McGregor took aim at Jake Paul ahead of his boxing match against "Platinum" Mike Perry ... calling the YouTuber-turned-fighter a "little dweeb of a thing."

Notorious unloaded the diss during the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship press conference at the Hard Rock Hotel in Marbella, Spain on Thursday ... when he was praising Perry's success with the promotion and what he's been able to do for his career.

"Look at what has happened to Michael Perry, one of our big stars here," McGregor -- who recently joined BKFC ownership -- said. "'The King of Violence,' he titles himself."

Ryan Garcia's boxing career is currently on hold, but his ability to party is still clearly going strong ... the star pugilist was spotted out at a nightclub in Hawaii this week, getting down on the dance floor without a shirt on.

The 25-year-old -- who was just recently expelled by the World Boxing Council for using a racial slur on social media -- hit up The District on Thursday night in Honolulu to blow off some steam ... and check out some footage TMZ Sports obtained, you can see he clearly had a good time at the hotspot.

King Ry was seen without a top on in the middle of a dance circle ... before he started shadowboxing to the beats that were blaring over the speaker system.

Floyd Mayweather, Mookie Betts, and a gang of other star athletes and actors rubbed shoulders at a swanky party in Los Angeles Wednesday night ... where the 50-0 fighter delivered an emotional speech to the famous partygoers!

In addition to TBE and the 8x All-Star, Draymond Green, Terance Mann, Michael Porter Jr., Trevor Ariza, Meagan Good, and Jonathan Majors were also in the building.

As for why all the stars came out ... it was to celebrate the launch of Hidden Empire Sports, a collaboration between The Union and EAG Sports Management, and created by Deon Taylor.