Fights

Cardi B isn't standing, or sitting, for anyone getting handsy with her -- even her fans -- because she went off at the end of her show in London Friday night.

Cardi had just wrapped up her performance at the Wireless Festival, and was in the front row amongst fans. She was sitting on the shoulder of a security guard when she looked down into the crowd and started using her microphone to fend off someone.

We can't tell from the video exactly what was happening that pissed her off so much, but she got in a few good shots with the mic before dropping it on the crowd.

Seems like there was no further conflict after that. We've reached out to Cardi's camp to get some more detail about what went down.

This was her second consecutive night performing live -- just last night she was in Norway ... the first of several European dates she has coming up.

Festival season is in full swing throughout Europe, and Roddy Ricch is making one thing clear ... he's got no patience for fans who wanna rush his stage.

Roddy was performing “The Box” at Openair Frauenfeld Festival in Frauenfeld, Switzerland as a rando gets up to join him ... Roddy's security was quick to take the guy down, but RR wanted in on the action too.

You can see Roddy figure out what happened, and wind up to give the fan a few kicks of his own. As soon as the area was cleared, Roddy resumed performing his classic record like nothing took place.

A wider angle of the incident also captured his ice-cold stare down.

It's official -- Jake Paul has found Tommy Fury's replacement for his August 6 fight ... he's going up against former boxing champion Hasim Rahman's son.

25-year-old Paul shared the big news just minutes ago ... saying he will be stepping in the ring against 31-year-old Hasim Rahman Jr. at Madison Square Garden.

Paul praised his new opponent in the announcement ... saying HRJ is bigger, stronger, more experienced and has more knockout power.

"But it doesn't matter," Jake said Thursday. "They don't have my heart, don't have my drive & definitely don't have my team."

"August 6 I'm showing the world that Jake Paul is a bad motherf***er."

Paul is moving on from a boxing champ's brother to a boxing champ's son -- HRJ's dad is the former two-time world heavyweight champ, who posted a 50-9-2 record throughout his career.

As for HRJ, he is 12-1 ... most recently losing to James McKenzie Morrison via TKO.

Rahman Jr. and Paul have experience in the ring together, with Hasim praising the YouTube superstar after sparring in the past.

Folks wanting to see Jake fight Tommy may not want to hold their breath ... 'cause the two had a back-and-forth on Thursday, where Jake offered Fury $500k to fight after Aug. 6.

Naturally, Tommy declined.

Paul vs. Rahman Jr. will be part of the main event at MSG ... co-headlining with the Amanda Serrano and Brenda Carabajal fight.

Rafael dos Anjos plans to be a UFC champ again, but the future Hall of Famer isn't fighting a top 5 ranked opponent when he returns to the Octagon Saturday night ... 'cause RDA tells TMZ Sports the dudes at the top of the division simply won't fight him.

"We're trying to get a fight with all the guys ahead of me on the rankings, but nobody seems to want to fight," #7 ranked dos Anjos says, adding many fighters will only face guys ranked higher than them.

We asked the soon-to-be 38-year-old fighter -- who's beaten guys like Nate Diaz, Robbie Lawler, and Donald Cerrone -- specifically who turned down the fight.

"Everybody. We tried everybody. We tried [Michael] Chandler, we tried [Justin] Gaethje. We tried everybody. It seems to not work. We threw all the names out there. Trying to get a better fight with a better-ranked opponent. But, besides Beneil Dariush, he's my friend, I didn't try to fight him. But other than that, seems like nobody wants to take a 'step back.'"

FYI, there's (technically) no lightweight champ. The strap was stripped from Charles Oliveira (#1) after he missed weight prior to his title fight with Justin (#3) in May. Dustin Poirier is ranked #2, Islam Makhachev #4, Chandler #5, and Dariush is #6.

As for the guy RDA is fighting ... 29-year-old Rafael Fiziev is a savage. He's ranked #10, and has only lost once (11-1) in his professional career. RF last fought in December 2021 ... when he knocked out Brad Riddell with a spinning head kick in the final round.

Both top 10 fighters are attempting to get to the same place ... the top of the lightweight division. Dos Anjos has been there before ... defeating Anthony Pettis for the LW belt in 2015.

Fiziev's trying to claw his way to the top for the first time.

The Jake Paul and Tommy Fury fight has been shelved once again -- the Problem Child says he's officially moving on to a new opponent for his Aug. 6 event ... accusing TNT of going into hiding.

"Fury's received a termination notice," Paul said on Wednesday. "(Most Valuable Promotions) did everything it could 2 help him & team. He wasn't interested & he literally went into hiding."

"2nd time in a row he has pulled out. 2nd time in a row '’m going to step up & take on a new opponent on short notice."

As we previously reported, Fury was denied access to the U.S. for the fight press conference in New York City last week due to his family's ties to alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan.

We're told boxers, managers or anyone connected to Kinahan or his MTK Global boxing company has been rejected from entering the States as officials try to get any possible information on his whereabouts.

Jake, however, doesn't believe the excuse ... saying all Tommy had to do was go to the embassy to get a visa, but was dragging his feet to get it done.

Now, there are rumblings Paul will face off against 12-1 Hasim Rahman Jr. -- the son of former boxing champ Hasim Rahman.

HRJ hasn't fought any big names, and most recently lost to James McKenzie Morrison via knockout in April.

There's history between Paul and Rahman Jr. -- the two have sparred together several times in the past ... with "Gold Blooded" praising the YouTube superstar for his improvement over the years.

Rahman Jr. may not have as much clout as Fury ... but the matchup will certainly quiet the haters who have called out Paul for never facing a "legit" boxer.

Booker T tells TMZ Sports his wrestling days are long behind him ... however, he respects a guy like Ric Flair, who, at age 73, will be lacing up his boots and stepping in the ring to fight one final match later this summer.

"I have no itch to scratch," Booker T said when asked about possibly coming out of retirement. "I've scratched every itch that I want to scratch as for as getting back inside the squared circle."

"What Ric Flair is doing, he's doing that because he loves this business, man. Ric Flair told me a long time ago that he would never retire. That's that guy, man."

As we reported, Ric is slated to wrestle one final time on July 31 against an undisclosed opponent, despite admitting he has some concerns that prior health issues might crop up in the ring.

57-year-old Booker T is clearly impressed by Flair's tenacity ... telling us, "He's gonna come in and go out in a blaze of glory. You can only respect that."

Booker also reflected on the first time he ever wrestled the Nature Boy -- it was a WCW Saturday night taping that he got thrown into at the last minute.

"Half of the time, I didn't know if I was coming or going just because he was telling me one thing, and he was doing another," Booker said.

The former heavyweight champ said he learned so much from sharing the ring with Naitch that night ... recalling he was like a "sponge" just trying to soak up all the knowledge Flair was imparting.

Booker may no longer be an in-ring performer ... but he remains an integral part of WWE's storytelling as a commentator, which is why the King of the Spinarooni has been tapped to host a new series called "WWE Rivals."

Joey Chestnut's inner dog wasn't going to be deterred by a would-be human torpedo, who tried derailing his wiener gobbling mid-competition ... but failed, 'cause the guy won anyway.

The reigning Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest champ successfully defended his title Monday in Coney Island, where year after year he comes back to devour dozens of dogs in a matter of 10 minutes. This year, he did it again ... downing 63 franks, far ahead of the competition.

But something nuts happened about midway through ... a dude in a Darth Vader mask made his way onstage and made contact with JC -- and the King didn't take too kindly to that!

Check it out ... rather than let security haul the poser away (which they eventually did), Joey took care of this punk himself -- putting the whipper-snapper in a headlock and yanking him around a bit, before getting back to stuffing his face. He didn't even think twice about it.

We got video of the aftermath ... namely, this poor sap being dragged away to be dealt with -- but it's insane that Joey still won the race even with this major interruption.

Ya gotta wonder if it actually affected the number of sausages he was ultimately able to inhale. While 63 is nothing to sneeze at -- and way more than anyone else got to -- it doesn't compare to his record 76 hot dogs from last year.

Maybe the dark side did actually get to Joey after all. Oh well ... congrats, man!

It's clear Canelo Alvarez doesn't like Gennady Golovkin ... 'cause the boxing star tells TMZ Sports GGG is a straight-up "a**hole" who talks too much -- and he's planning to KO the guy because of it.

"He's a f***ing a**hole," Canelo said of his upcoming September opponent. "He's not honest. He pretends to be a good person and be different but he's not."

Canelo says his opinion of Golovkin basically boils down to this -- he believes the 42-1-1 boxer is just flat-out two-faced.

"He talks a lot of s*** about me," Alvarez said. "He'll say, 'I respect him, his career.' And, other part, 'He's an embarrassing boxer, he's embarrassing for Mexican boxing.'"

"I hate that motherf***er because of that."

Earlier this week, GGG told us he knew Canelo felt that way about him ... but he believed it was because the 57-2-2 fighter can't handle his honesty.

The beef will all be settled on Sept. 17 in Las Vegas when the two square off for the third time in their careers ... and, according to Canelo, he'll get the last laugh.

"My goal is to end this fight before the 12 rounds," Canelo said.

After that, Canelo said he'd like a rematch with Dmitry Bivol -- the only boxer he's ever lost to outside of Floyd Mayweather.

"I'm 100% focused on this fight [with Golovkin] because it's a dangerous fight," Canelo said, "but 100% looking for a second fight with Bivol."

Michael Pena might be getting flashbacks watching this ... a cop throwing hands with an unarmed civilian, and losing his own gear to get on equal footing.

Check out this wild fight between a police officer and a regular schmoe from the streets ... where they both decide to square up and duke out whatever issue they're having. It's pretty nuts -- the cop actually takes off his vest (but still keeps his gun) to throw down properly.

They exchange minor blows for a good while, with the cop seeming to have the upper hand -- he's way bigger for starters -- and the dude in green coming back for more each round.

In the end, they appear to leave their differences right there on the pavement ... seemingly without further incident. Of course, many have pointed out that this doesn't look to have happened in the States -- where a civilian would surely be busted for scrapping with a cop.

Of course, the other observation here ... this is very much like a scene from the 2012 movie "End of Watch," in which both Pena and Jake Gyllenhaal star ... where they play wayward cops. At one point in the flick -- Pena's character, Mike Zavala, brawls with a perp.

One of the greatest to ever grace the backfield is weighing in on two NFL running backs duking it out in the boxing ring ... and it's great news for Adrian Peterson.

Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson spoke with TMZ Sports about the massive Social Gloves bout between AP and Le'Veon Bell coming up later this month at Crypto.com Arena ... and the Rams legend says there's a clear favorite in his eyes.

"I know how strong AP is," ED said at LAX this week ... saying the ex-Vikings star is simply too big for Bell.

And, if he were to put money on the fight ... Dickerson says it's All Day.

We broke the story -- Peterson and Bell will face off as part of the Austin McBroom vs. AnEsonGib fight that's going down in Los Angeles on July 30.

The card will also feature ex-Laker Nick Young and rapper Blueface ... with more fights being announced throughout the next few weeks.

Valerie Loureda tells TMZ Sports a fight with Ronda Rousey in WWE is her dream match ... and now that she's officially signed to the wrestling giant, she's determined to make it happen!!

We spoke with Loureda -- who officially became a member of WWE on Wednesday -- and asked her if there was one particular opponent she was eyeing before debuting on the main roster ... and she said yes, telling us, "Definitely, Ronda."

"She tweeted the other day 'Who's next?' and before I even found out I was getting a contract with WWE, I tweeted back, 'me,'" Loureda said of Rousey. "And that's the goal I have one day."

Valerie and Ronda both have MMA backgrounds ... and, in fact, Loureda says seeing Ronda fight back in the early 2010s inspired her to want to do the same.

"I never watched MMA before in my life," Loureda said, "and just so happens, Ronda was fighting, and I saw a beautiful woman fighting in a cage ... and I got goosebumps."

"I said, 'Nana, if she's doing that, I can do it too,' and that's really what gave me all that fire and passion inside of me to begin my martial arts journey."

Valerie -- who grew up an expert in taekwondo -- knows the transition from the cage to the squared circle will be a tough one, but she said if she ever gets in the ring with Ronda ... there will be fireworks.

It's been nearly 9 years since Max Holloway and Conor McGregor fought, but the rematch could finally be on the horizon ... 'cause Blessed tells TMZ Sports he's down to go at Notorious again -- in Hawaii!!

"It'd be a great, big fight for everyone," Holloway told us ahead of his matchup against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 276 ... adding his home turf would be the perfect location for the bout.

"I mean, we got a stadium. Why not do it?!"

Of course, Holloway makes it clear he's not looking past his current opponent ... but says a Conor rematch makes sense to have in Hawaii -- or Conor's native Ireland.

Remember, the first matchup at UFC Fight Night 26 in 2013 ... with McGregor taking the win via decision.

As for Saturday's fight, Max is stoked to get out there for the fans.

"This the first time in two years I get to fight in front of a crowd again. I got five title wins and I have to get my sixth title win against Alex in front of my family, in front of my friends on the 9th island. It would be huge."

AEW star Eddie Kingston gave new meaning to the word extreme during a wrestling match Wednesday ... 'cause he threw Sammy Guevara off the top of a cage -- sending him crashing through a timekeeper's table about a dozen feet below!!

It all went down last night at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit ... during the main event of AEW's "Blood & Guts" show -- which featured a six-on-six, cage match between Jericho Appreciation Society vs. Blackpool Combat, Kingston, Santana, & Ortiz.

The match featured two rings, one cage, a bunch of weapons, and a ton of blood ... and the only way to win the contest was by submission or to get your opponent to surrender.

During the match, as expected, the combatants made their way to the top of the unforgiving steel structure ... where Kingston threw Guevara off as Jericho watched nearby.

Guevera crashed landed through the structure ... all while Kingston looked on with a deranged expression.

The spot in the match was insane ... and the raucous crowd, who could barely stay in their seats for the duration of the show, became unglued.

Of course, WWE fans have seen similar moments before ... back at "Hell In A Cell" in June 1998, The Undertaker threw known dare-devil Mankind off the top of a cage in one of the most iconic moments in wrestling history.

Ironically enough, Kingston and Guevara's viral moment came almost 24 years to the date Undertaker tossed Mankind ... and it makes you wonder if they were paying homage to the legends.

Gennady "GGG" Golovkin has no plans to hang up his boxing gloves after his trilogy fight with Canelo Alvarez ... telling TMZ Sports he's "not ready" to retire yet.

In fact, the star pugilist said he'd straight up be down to fight Alvarez for a fourth time!

The news is somewhat surprising -- most thought the 40-year-old would call it a career after he takes on Canelo in September for the third time since 2017.

And, watch the clip, you can tell Golovkin has certainly considered it. But, he says he's still got more gas left in the tank despite having fought in 44 pro fights in his career.

"Not yet," GGG tells us about retirement. "I'm not ready yet."

As for why he'd come back to the ring to take on Canelo for a fourth time as opposed to callin' it a career ... he said that choice is very simple.

"The business side," he said, "it's very interesting."

For now, the 42-1-1 boxer says he's happy his fans want to see him in the ring with the Mexican boxer again -- and he tells us he's going for a KO in the match.

The Gypsy King vs. The Mountain in 2022?!?

It appears we could very well see that ... 'cause after Tyson Fury threw a verbal jab at "Game of Thrones" star Hafthor Bjornsson on Wednesday -- the actor-turned-boxer accepted a fight!!!

Fury's barb was pretty clever ... on his Instagram page, he wrote, "I wonder if Thor Bjornsson could take a crashing right hand to that big jaw," adding, "Who would have Thor's hammer? Would this mountain be too big to climb?"

It didn't take long for Thor -- a former World's Strongest Man -- to see the quips ... and in a shirtless video, he fired back at Fury -- accepting a fight if the 33-year-old heavyweight champ was offering one.

"I'm 100% up for war," Bjornsson said. "Let's do this."

Now, don't get it twisted ... even though Bjornsson is an actor and a former strongman, he's no stranger to the boxing ring.

Since 2021, Bjornsson has boxed in 4 professional fights -- winning two bouts while the others ended up in a draw.

And, the two are roughly the same size -- both standing at 6'9".

Izzy Drake's career as a professional Drake impersonator is on the ropes ... a wobble he's looking to shake by challenging his idol to a $1M celebrity boxing match.

Damon Feldman of Celebrity Boxing tells us he signed the Drake imposter and booked a fight for an August 27th event ... whether the real Drake fights the fake Drake or not.

The stakes here are high ... fake Drake has agreed to stop impersonating the real Drizzy if he loses.

TMZ Hip Hop broke the story of fake Drake's embarrassing VIP eviction from one of real Drake's favorite Houston nightclubs.