Fights

Ryan Garcia is ready to squash the beef with Canelo Alvarez ... saying he wants to bury the hatchet with the boxing superstar -- even offering front-row tickets to his fight in L.A. as an olive branch.

The fall-out from the former buddies happened earlier this year when Garcia parted ways with his trainer Eddy Reynoso ... who also happens to train Canelo.

Garcia claimed he wasn't getting the proper attention from the team ... so he split. The fallout ... tension with Alvarez. And since, the men have had a frosty relationship ... with Canelo even questioning Ryan's work ethic, saying he's "wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent."

But, after a bunch of back and forth, Garcia says he wants to move on, telling Inside Fighting the quarrel between them is a "hypothetical beef".

"I would definitely love to make amends with people, forgive people," Garcia said on Wednesday.

"I believe in forgiveness and I'm just the type of person to forgive really quick and I don't want that negativity or bad blood with anybody."'

To prove Ryan isn't just talking ... he's inviting Alvarez to his July 16 fight against Javier Fortuna at Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.

"I'll get him tickets," the 22-0 boxer said, "He can get it himself but if he personally asks me, I would give him tickets. First row. Love him to be there."

And, Alvarez won't be the only star there (if he shows). Garcia says LeBron James, Aaron Donald, and Draymond Green will all be making an appearance.

"Only winners come to my fight."

Former Denver Broncos defensive back Brendan Langley is breathing easier today ... his airport assault case has been dismissed, TMZ Sports has learned.

According to a court official, the case was dropped on Wednesday.

Langley's attorney, Halim Dhanidina, tells us the reasoning is because officials determined Langley "used force that was reasonably necessary" during the now-famous May altercation at Newark Liberty International Airport.

"We are grateful for the Court’s decision which puts an end to this ordeal that began nearly two months ago when Mr. Langley was assaulted then wrongfully arrested and charged for exercising his rights under the law," said Dhanidina, who works for Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP.

As we reported, Langley was initially arrested and charged with simple assault after he socked a United Airlines employee during a May 19 argument at the airport's ticket counter.

Langley -- who hit the guy so many times, he forced him to bleed -- said afterward through his attorney that he was simply defending himself. Langley's rep told us that the United employee had harassed the former NFL player, called him names, and got physical first.

Langley, a Broncos third-round draft pick in 2017, had just signed on to play wide receiver for the Calgary Stampeders, who initially decided to suspend him indefinitely over the fight. No word yet if they're now reinstating him following Wednesday's decision in court.

Fake Drake will get his wish to fight in the Celebrity Boxing arena ... just not against the man to whom he owes his livelihood.

Damon Feldman of Celeb Boxing tells TMZ Hip Hop that Lamar Odom -- AKA ex-NBA champ, husband to Khloé Kardashian -- has agreed to square off against Frake ... and this one feels a little personal.

Lamar dropped a prefight video while rocking a Nipsey Hussle shirt ... and he seemed pissed Fake Drake was trying to drag the real deal into the ring. So L.O. promised to help his friend and lay out the impersonator once and for all.

Not to be outdone, Fake Drake shot a training vid of his pugilistic skills -- although he's mainly ducking punches.

He's gonna need some serious evasive techniques -- Lamar stands at 6'10, won championships with Kobe Bryant annnd has already beat up J Lo's ex-husband and knocked out Aaron Carter in Celeb Boxing matches so ... good luck Fake Drake.

While they're still deciding between Atlantic City or Miami, we're told the fight is definitely on for October 15.

A surfer beat the crap out of a younger bodyboarder after they crashed into each other while riding the same wave ... and the brutal attack is all on video.

The dustup happened at a popular surf spot in Gold Coast, Australia ... where punches started flying after a wipeout.

The surfer was the clear aggressor, swimming over to the bodyboarder and landing several blows to the face.

Other folks in the water race over to get the surfer away from the bodyboarder ... with at least one onlooker telling the surfer his target was half his age and only a kid.

The surfer seems frustrated, throwing up his hands as the video ends ... and it seems he was set off by colliding with the bodyboarder inside a nice barrel.

Le'Veon Bell's football career is over -- at least for now -- the NFL star says he won't play this season ... and it's all 'cause he wants to now focus on his boxing career.

The running back made the announcement just minutes ago at a promotional event for his upcoming fight with Adrian Peterson -- revealing he's going to try to take this year to begin his formal transition from football player to full-time fighter.

"Last year, I almost sat out the whole year to try to focus on boxing, because I kind of knew that's what I wanted to transition to," Bell said.

"This year, I know I'm not going to be playing this year because I want to focus on boxing."

Bell -- who played eight total games last season for the Baltimore Ravens and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- has been slowly making the move into the fight world, incorporating mitts into his workouts routinely.

But, at 30 years old, most thought he'd still try to extend his NFL career.

Bell, though, made it known he believes he can carve out a real niche in boxing -- and he said he's hoping a win over Peterson during their match later this month kick starts all of that.

"This is my introduction to kind of showing what I've been doing," Bell said, "and how I've been going about myself."

Jake Paul wants Hasim Rahman Jr. to put more than his boxing career on the line when they face off in the ring ... calling on the champ's son to agree to take on a hilariously embarrassing Instagram handle if he loses.

The two fighters went at it in their official press conference for the August 6 bout at Madison Square Garden ... and in true Problem Child fashion, Jake wanted to make a bet with Rahman Jr.

When HRJ refused to make a monetary agreement, Paul got creative.

"When I beat you, you have to change your Instagram name to 'ILetMyDadDown,'" Paul said Tuesday ... adding he already scooped up the handle just in case.

BTW -- we looked it up, and it appears Jake is a man of his word.

Rahman Jr. shot down the offer, saying he wasn't going to entertain Jake's charade ... but it's clear he wants the guy to cave in and take the bet.

Of course, Jake is known for making friendly/humiliating deals with his opponents -- Tyron Woodley got "I Love Jake Paul" tatted on his middle finger after losing to the YouTube superstar in 2021, although it has pretty much faded away by now.

Paul was also planning to make a $1 million bet with Tyson Fury for his fight against Tommy ... before the fight got scrapped.

Kamaru Usman is laser-focused on his upcoming match with Leon Edwards ... but the UFC superstar admits to TMZ Sports he's still hoping for a fight with Canelo Alvarez down the road.

The welterweight champion said the tilt would be "a spectacle" -- and predicted it'd be one of the most anticipated events in combat sports history.

"It's never been done, pound-for-pound versus pound-for-pound," Usman tells us. "And, they're significantly close in weight classes to be able to do it -- why not?!"

"I don't think there's going to be anyone in the world who's not watching that fight."

Of course, Usman is slated to rematch Edwards next month -- while Canelo is set to fight Gennady Golovkin for a third time in September.

But, after those two matches wrap up -- Usman made it clear, he'd be more than down for a collision with the star boxer.

"When you hear that fight's announced," Usman said, "everyone's going to be watching that fight."

Canelo has expressed at least some interest in a fight with Usman -- though he wrote in a tweet to The Nigerian Nightmare back in April that he had a legacy to make before he got in the ring with the MMA star.

If Canelo isn't on the horizon, Usman tells us he's got a desire to move to the lightweight division, and take on either Jan Błachowicz or Jiří Procházka.

But, don't get it twisted, Usman is locked in on his Edwards fight -- explaining to us he's only leaving his house to hit the gym to train.

As more overzealous fans get handsy with rappers, the more consequences they face -- just ask this poor guy, who got ejected off stage through the force of Lil Baby's burly bodyguard.

The Atlanta MC was performing in Switzerland this week -- at the Openair Frauenfeld Festival, no less -- when at one point during his set ... some bloke crashed the performance and seemingly tried making contact with LB by rushing him.

You can see Lil Baby bracing for the dude, putting his arm out in what looks to be a deterrent move -- this while he was mid-rap -- but luckily ... security swooped right in the nick of time, and did so with some oomph.

As you can see, a guard bodied the intruder ... and sent him hurdling toward the front row barricade -- which he eventually slammed up against only to be left flailing on the ground.

Unclear what ended up happening to this man ... we imagine he was taken to a hospital, but may have also gotten rung up for the stunt. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first crazy encounter with a brave spectator. Roddy Ricch went through something similar this week.

That's not all ... even Cardi B had to unload on someone from the crowd who made contact during a performance of hers as well. In that instance, she handled the grabber herself.

All this going-up-on-stage-and-attacking-performers has been happening a lot more lately ... or at least we seem to be seeing it a lot more, anyway.

6'3", #14 ranked UFC lightweight Jalin Turner -- fresh off an impressive win at UFC 276 -- says he gets compared to Jon Jones ... and it's a huge honor!

"[Being compared to Jones is] a positive. I always look at it as a positive when people are calling me Anderson Silva," Turner tells TMZ Sports, adding ... "that's a huge honor 'cause that's somebody I model a lot of my game after."

Turner, like 6'4" Jones, has an incredible height and reach advantage over opponents ... but it's even more pronounced with JT 'cause he fights in the lightweight (155 lbs.) division.

Jon, of course, was a light heavyweight champ (205 lbs.) for years before recently moving up to heavyweight (206 lb.+).

FYI, the lightweight top 5 is made up entirely of 5'10" fighters ... with the exception of the 5'8" Michael Chandler.

And, Turner -- who just beat Brad Riddell via 1st round submission -- believes he has a sizeable advantage over those savages at the top of the division ... but he says it's about more than just height.

"I feel like I have the skillset, the tools, the attributes to be a champion in the division. I have a reach advantage over everybody. I feel like I have a speed and timing advantage over everybody. The length plays a good factor, even in the grappling exchange."

Jalin continued ... "I can utilize leverage, use less energy when I use my leverage efficiently and I can excel. I really can. Everybody's called me the lightweight Jon Jones since I was at Jackson Academy."

JT trained at Jackson Wink MMA gym in Albuquerque ... Jon's home gym for many years.

Turner isn't the first guy to be compared to Jon. In fact, Israel Adesanya, when he first entered the UFC, was compared to Bones ... a comparison Izzy hated.

Now that Jalin cracked the top 15, it's clear he isn't content.

Rafael Fiziev looked up to Rafael dos Anjos, but now the 29-year-old rising star has to fight the future Hall of Famer Saturday night ... and any lingering reverence is now just a desire to kick RDA's ass!

TMZ Sports talked to 29-year-old, #10 ranked UFC lightweight ahead of his main event scrap with the #7 ranked, 37-year-old former champion at UFC Fight Night from the Apex in Vegas ... and we asked Fiziev about fighting someone he came up watching.

"This is for me a dream fight because I watched him a long time ago. I start to watch him in 2014, something like that, and yeah, followed him long time ago just because his name is Rafa and his style also close to me," Fiziev says.

Is this the most important fight of your career, we asked?

"Yeah, this is the biggest in my career and I'm happy with this."

You're likely aware of RDA's resume ... but Fiziev's is pretty damn impressive, too. He's 11-1 professionally for his career, and is in the midst of a 5-fight win streak. Rafael's beat Brad Riddell (KO, Dec 2021) and Bobby Green (UD, Aug 2021) in his last two fights.

So, if Fiziev beats RDA, where does that put him in the stacked division? He doesn't really care.

"Doesn't matter. I don't think about positions. I know he stays in the top 7 and after this fight, he put me in the 7th or the 8th or the 9th, it doesn't matter. I know he's a good name. He fights with stars, with All-Stars in the UFC before and now and I know when I beat him, this is everyone starts to talk to me."

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."