Fights

Dana White is CONVINCED Jake Paul is gonna get his ass whooped when he steps in the ring to fight Ben Askren ... and he's willing to put his money where his mouth is!

“I hope you can bet on this thing because I will bet ONE MILLION DOLLARS that he loses this f**king fight," White said on the "Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson" Podcast.

"I bet a million dollars that he loses this fight!"

White just simply ain't convinced Jake has what it takes to beat an accomplished professional fighter like Ben Askren ... who's 19-2 as an MMA fighter.

Askren's strength is his wrestling -- not his striking -- but White doesn't think it matters ... he's predicting a massacre when they finally clash on April 17.

"Let’s be honest, Jake Paul isn’t a f**king boxer. This guy is a fucking YouTube kid," White added.

Paul is 2-0 in his boxing career with a violent KO over ex-NBA star Nate Robinson ... and he's been training with ex-boxing star Zab Judah, who defended Jake on the podcast.

"Dana I watched him, he’s been working hard, Dana. I have seen him put it together," Zab said.

Judah added ... "He’s got hands. I am not joking.”

The clip went viral almost immediately and ended up in front of Jake who was VERY amused and is now challenging White to INCREASE the bet to $2 MILLION!!!

"Dana let’s double the bet up! $2 Million," Jake said.

"We wire the money into escrow. $4 million total. Winner takes all. My team will be in touch to make a contract."

“[Yan] threw a fight-ending knee and it hit me in the side of the head, a shot I didn’t see, and if you think I’m faking that, let me do that to you. Please let me do that to you."

That's bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling clapping back at the "clowns" and "jokers" who accused Funk Master of pretending to be hurt during his UFC 259 title fight -- all to steal the belt.

TMZ Sports asked the 31-year-old fighter how he was feeling physically after Petr Yan blasted him with the illegal knee.

"I was a little cloudy, I’m definitely better today. I couldn’t even drink the night of cause I was worried about my head. I felt nauseous. I ended up throwing up later that night."

Sterling went to the hospital the night of the fight -- and has since seen a doctor -- and now must wait to be cleared to begin training again.

As for his future fight plans, Sterling says he's interested in a fight with former champ-champ Henry Cejudo ... but 1st wants to rematch Yan.

And, Aljo says after 4 rounds with Yan -- he's never been more certain he can beat the Russian fighter.

“If anything, I think my confidence got better from this," Aljamain says.

"Everyone made him out to be this guy that was the boogeyman, that he hits super hard, that he’s in your face the whole time, when I was the one backing him up the whole time.”

And, about all those Oscar Award memes on social media ... Sterling sent a closing message to the haters.

“For anyone trying to say I quit, I never quit in anything that I’ve done in my life. Oscar, whatever you guys wanna say, I know who I am. I don’t have to prove anything to nobody."

Julianna Peña is doing what most female fighters are scared to do ... not only challenge Amanda Nunes to a scrap, but promising to whoop her ass!!

TMZ Sports spoke to the 31-year-old, #6 ranked UFC Bantamweight about Nunes ... who just obliterated Megan Anderson in just over 2 minutes at UFC 259.

The narrative has been that Nunes has cleared out all the women in the 135 & 145 lb. divisions ... but Peña tells us that simply ain't the case.

“I’m still here, I’m in the division, and stylistically, I am the worst possible matchup for [Nunes]. The last time she was put on her back by Cat Zingano, she balled up into the fetal position and had the ref need to yank Cat off of her, and I beat Cat."

FYI, Zingano was the Lioness' last loss ... all the way back in September 2014. Amanda has won 12 UFC fights in a row since the TKO loss.

We asked Peña -- who's 10-4 as a pro -- why she believes Nunes is avoiding a fight with her ... and the Venezuelan Vixen says the double champ knows she presents big-time matchup issues.

"I definitely think she knows stylistically I am the worst matchup for her. I know it, I am her Kryptonite, and I think that's why she keeps trying to push it off.”

In other words ... a lot of the women in the UFC may fear Nunes, but Julianna ain't one of them.

“She’s not this big ol’ boogeyman that everyone thinks she is, and I'm not afraid of her, and I defiantly think she knows that," Peña says.

Julianna closed the interview with a message aimed squarely at Nunes.

This no-mask "Karen" claims she has COVID-19, yet that didn't stop her from coughing all over her Uber driver, while also snatching his phone and HIS face mask.

Luckily, the Bay Area driver recorded the whole incident ... capturing the woman yelling, "No, f*** the mask," and declaring "I got corona." The driver tried his damnedest to get the woman and her 2 friends out of his car, but to no avail.

As if things couldn't get any worse ... the "Karen" grabs the driver's phone from his dashboard before ripping off his mask.

Through it all ... the driver remained calm, and luckily got his phone back but not before having to deal with a nightmare scenario all too familiar to ride-share drivers everywhere.

The "Karen" -- who goes by keepinupwforeign on Instagram -- went on social media to explain her side of things and said, "This man's plan was to go viral from the beginning instead of just taking us to our destination like wtf.”

She continued, “Idk who going to get out on the freeway or at the gas station in the hood at that with all the stuff I had! He could have said not [to] get in from the beginning period or at least waiting at the gas station for our next Uber but no."

You can see in the video the "Karen" posted she is wearing a mask ... but based on her side of the story it appears the driver's problem was she wasn't wearing a mask before getting into the car, and only throwing one on after getting into an argument that quickly escalated.

UFC star Andrei Arlovski -- the former heavyweight champion -- says he has NO PLANS to retire at age 42 ... and wants to keep bangin' away until he's 45!!!!

Arlovski made his UFC debut at UFC 28 back in 2000 -- 21 YEARS AGO -- and has been fighting consistently ever since.

He won the UFC heavyweight title in 2005 -- and has been in wars with superstars like Francis Ngannou, Stipe Miocic, Frank Mir, Stefan Struve, Alistair Overeem ... you get the picture.

But, Arlovski's coming off a 2nd round loss to 27-year-old Tom Aspinall -- his 10th loss in his last 16 fights -- begging the question ... is he considering hangin' up his gloves???

"Oh, f**k no," Arlovski told us while out shopping in Beverly Hills ... "If the UFC doesn't kick me out, [I'd like to fight] probably like 2, 3 more years. We'll see. Why not?"

In fact, Arlovski is still calling for tough opponents -- "Someone tough and young!"

By the way, since Andrei has fought both Stipe and Ngannou -- we asked for his prediction on who will win that massive heavyweight title fight at UFC 260 later this month.

A brawl broke out at a Bath & Body Works in Arizona, where the employees of all people are the ones who stepped in ... and proceeded to whoop on a woman.

Check out this insane fight that broke out over the weekend at the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale -- where a middle-aged woman is said to have been causing a ruckus inside with another customer before s*** hit the fan.

The person who shot this claims the lady was standing too close to another customer and they started arguing ... something she says the workers tried deescalating.

At some point, somebody put hands on the other ... and all hell broke loose. You see an employee start to go at it with the blonde woman, while her co-worker rushes over to help ... knocking everyone over in the process. Not too far away, another woman gets into it with yet another worker.

Eventually, a male employee steps in to break it up -- and he orders the women who were fighting to get the heck out of their establishment. The blonde lady tells him to stop touching her, and then says she ain't leaving 'til she can get her purse amid the commotion.

Somebody else got a different angle, and it looks like they shot some of what precipitated this. Sure enough, this older white woman is indeed arguing with an African-American woman ... and you hear some politically charged rhetoric. The African-American woman calls the white woman "trailer park trash" ... and it's downhill from there.

Unclear if this had anything to do with it -- but we should note, the main character here doesn't seem to be wearing a face covering. We reached out to this location and BBW HQ as well ... the Scottsdale store had no comment, no word back yet from corporate.

“I’ll knock [Canelo] out! I'll stop him! It takes a lot of balls to say that but the reason why I'm saying that is because I really fully, truly believe I'm the one that can beat and stop Canelo.”

That's 24-year-old rising boxing star David Benavidez verbally taking on the #1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, megastar Canelo Alvarez.

TMZ Sports talked to Benavidez -- who's taking on Ronald Ellis on March 13 on Showtime -- about his boxing hit list ... and DB's going big game hunting.

"The dream scenario is fight with [Jermall] Charlo right after and then Caleb Plant and then Canelo. That's the dream scenario but the reality of making that happen, is very hard."

30-year-old Canelo is 55-1-2 ... and obviously has far more experience.  But, Benavidez -- who's almost 6'2" (big for the 168 lb. division) -- is a badass in the ring ... and has never lost a professional fight (23-0, 20 KO's).

That's why he's anything but shook about the prospect of stepping in the squared circle with Alvarez.

"The top people [Canelo's] fought, they just look like they're scared of him and they just respect him too much, but me, I feel like I'm a young, hungry lion! I need that fight because I wanna show the fans how good I really am."

And, Benavidez says Canelo can try and duck him ... but sooner or later, this thing's goin' down -- like it or not.

"He's gonna try avoid me as long as possible, but I feel like at the end of the day, this fight is gonna be demanded," Benavidez says.

UFC light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz says he's got a secret weapon for beating Israel Adesanya on Saturday night -- his newborn son!

The Polish powerhouse's fiancee gave birth to their first child, JJ, back in December -- and Jan says it's changed his whole outlook on life and fighting.

"Mentally, I'm stronger," 38-year-old Jan told TMZ Sports ... "Bigger motivation for everything right now. To hit harder, work harder."

"I do this for him right now."

As for his fight with Adesanya -- the undefeated middleweight champ -- Blachowicz knows it'll be the biggest challenge of his career but he's confident he'll end it in less than 2 rounds.

"I believe that I'm going to be the first one who beat him after this Saturday," Jan says.

"He gonna be 20 and 1, this what I believe and that's it. I know that he's really great fighter, amazing fighter, one of the best in the world but anyway I got my time right now, it's my division and I will stop him."

There's talk of a possible matchup with Jon Jones down the line -- but Jan says he's focused on Israel ... and will deal with Jones when the time comes.

UFC star Aljamain Sterling is finally getting his title shot this weekend -- and he's predicting a 2nd round victory over the champ, Petr Yan.

But, it's bigger than just a belt for Sterling who tells TMZ Sports becoming the first Jamaican champion could be huge for the island nation.

31-year-old Sterling was born and raised in New York -- but both of his parents are from Jamaica and he feels a strong sense of American and Jamaican pride.

But, the fact is ... no UFC fighter of Jamaican descent has ever held a UFC belt and Sterling says he's looking to make history when he steps into the octagon against bantamweight champ Petr Yan on March 6 at UFC 259.

"I think he's the real deal," Sterling says ... "He's a tough guy, he did what he had to do with all the guys that they put in front of him so I gotta pay him respect for that but at the end of the day, this is my time! This my time to put on a show."

Sterling -- who's 19-3 and on a 5-fight win streak -- says he's confident his grappling game will simply be too much for Yan to handle ... culminating in a 2nd round TKO.

And, if Sterling's prediction comes true, Alja believes a Jamaican champion could inspire a whole new generation of MMA fighters.

"It would be a catalyst for the entire country to really get the sport picked up and get it rockin' and rollin'."

Sterling says he's working on plans to spread the sport to the masses in Jamaica -- with the goal of keeping the cost of entry down.

Amanda Nunes and Nina Ansaroff -- the most powerful couple in MMA -- tell TMZ Sports they're LOVING being new parents ... and they're already down to expand their family again!

As you may know, Nina -- the #5 ranked UFC strawweight -- gave birth back to the couple's daughter back in September.

Amanda -- widely considered the greatest female MMA fighter of all time -- says motherhood has been "amazing" so far ... "It's an experience that makes me very happy."

In fact, Amanda says it's been easier to parent their daughter than the 3 dogs they own!

"My 3 dogs worse than having a baby," Amanda said ... "She's a very good baby. She's really a good baby so that helps a lot."

But, the burning question ... when both of your parents are MMA stars, is the kid destined for a career in the octagon?

Nina admits she REALLY hopes their kids find another sport!

"I want her to play soccer or study or whatever she wants and really hoping she doesn't want to fight."

"Of course, will be easier for her because she has us as guidance but I don't wanna see her get punched in the face! Look at this little face! I think we're good with anything other than that."

Nina is slated to return to the octagon in April to fight Mackenzie Dern -- and she's STOKED to get back to work!

When Claressa Shields hits the ring on Friday night -- she'll be rocking custom fight trunks paying tribute to Kobe Bryant and Gianna.

25-year-old Shields is taking on IBF super welterweight champion Marie-Eve Dicaire -- in a fight to unify the super welterweight division.

Claressa has established herself as the top fighter in women's boxing -- she's 10-0 as a pro ... with TWO gold medals in the Olympics.

She was clearly inspired by the greatness of Kobe and his daughter Gianna -- which is why she decided to put their names on her trunks.

Shields tells TMZ Sports she's laser-focused on her fight with Dicaire -- explaining, "I wanna knock her out but I also wanna have a great performance."

"She's gonna come out there and try to perform but I just know that I can get her out between rounds 5 and 7. It just depends which round that I'm really feeling it."

As we previously reported, Shields is also training to make the jump from boxing to MMA ... with her first MMA fight scheduled to take place in the summer.

Still no word on who Claressa's first MMA opponent will be -- but she doesn't care! Bring on ANYONE!

"My only job is just to prepare. I don't really care who they put me in there with I'm just gonna do my best."

Don't get it twisted ... Shields says she'll continue to box -- maybe the first true two-sport star in all of combat sports?

"I fight my first MMA fight in the middle of June and I'll be having a boxing match in maybe December and maybe another MMA fight in August, September. I'm not even sure but I know for sure June I'll be back, I'll be in the cage for sure."

Former NHL star Sean Avery busted a man's car mirror during a heated altercation in L.A. Thursday morning ... but he tells TMZ Sports he's the real victim in the situation.

Here's the deal ... law enforcement tells us cops were called out to the 8300 block of the Yucca Trail near West Hollywood around 10 AM to respond to a call of vandalism.

What happened preceding the call, though seems to boil down to two sides.

On one end, there's Niku. On the other, there's Avery ... and both guys claim the other dude was the aggressor in the incident.

Niku says a couple weeks ago, back in mid-February, he got into a confrontation with Avery in the neighborhood after unintentionally blocking the former hockey player down a two-way, one-lane road.

Niku says when he backed up to let Avery by ... the 40-year-old ex-NY Ranger became aggressive, rolled down his window and yelled "slow down you fat f***" over and over.

Niku says he hadn't had any contact with Avery since ... until Thursday morning, when he drove by the NHL player, who was on a jog.

Niku claims Avery recognized him from their February incident, and became incensed, and chased after him.

In video of the incident, you can see what happened next ... Avery caught up to Niku and opened his door -- before Niku quickly pulled it shut.

Niku then rolled down his window and called Avery a "psychopath."

Avery then stood in front of Niku's car ... until Niku drove slowly towards him while honking his horn.

Avery eventually got out of the way, but elbowed the dude's driver's side mirror as he stepped aside.

Avery, though, claims the whole thing was started because Niku hit him while he was jogging.

Avery says he chased Niku down to try to get him to stop ... saying Niku, "Tried to run me over." Avery added, "My leg's a little hurt."

Cops wouldn't reveal any more details from their investigation into the incident Thursday ... only telling us that a report was taken. They added no arrests were made.

"Nothing happened behind the scenes. They’re both great guys who have had incredible careers here."

That's Dana White telling TMZ Sports his decision to release Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos from the UFC wasn't personal, just business ... and everyone's still on good terms.

Junior dos Santos signed with the UFC in 2008. Overeem has been with UFC since 2011.

Both guys were cut from the UFC roster this week -- so when we spoke with Dana on Thursday ... we asked why.

"People get cut every week … I think those two are pretty self-explanatory. It's nothing negative, it's just part of the sport.

40-year-old Alistair is coming off a loss to Alexander Volkov -- he was 6 and 4 in his last 10 fights.

37-year-old JDS is on a 4-fight losing streak -- most recently suffering a TKO loss to Ciryl Gane in Dec. 2020.

"If you look up what they’ve done recently ... you look at their age ... you look at everything that's going on, it's pretty self-explanatory," White said.

White praised both guys as being super tough and consummate pros.

"Alistair Overeem never said no to a fight, never turned down a fight … would fight anybody."

"And, JDS is one of the nicest human beings in the sport, I have nothing but amazing things to say about both guys."

Bottom line -- "Age, it gets us all man."

There's more ...

Dana is FIRED UP for UFC 259 on Saturday -- especially the main event, middleweight champ Israel Adesanya vs. light heavyweight champ Jan Blachowicz.

Only Jan's belt is on the line on Saturday -- so, if Israel wins, he'll be the UFC's next Champ Champ!

"Jan Blachowicz might not be very well known but I feel like this is his coming-out party," White says.

"If he can beat the undefeated midweight champion Israel Adesanya, everybody will know him and be talking about him on Sunday."

Another big fight is UFC superstar Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson.

"The thing that makes this fight real fun is both of these women have knockout power. We'll see lots of fun female fights that are very technical, fast pace, etc -- these two women can knock other women unconscious and the fact that they have that kinda power, makes this fight very badass."

52-year-old Roy Jones Jr. says he's ready for ANOTHER boxing match after that war with Mike Tyson -- and he's eyeing a UFC legend.

Roy has his sights set on 45-year-old superstar Anderson Silva -- widely considered one of the greatest MMA athletes of all time.

So, why Silva ... and not a rematch with Iron Mike?

"I think [Mike Tyson is] gonna do a fight with Evander Holyfield," Jones said ... "what I'm thinking is I'll probably fight somebody else."

"Truthfully speaking ... my dream next fight will probably be Anderson Silva."

Roy says he's been trying to lock up a fight with Silva for years -- but the timing finally seems right.

"Anderson's available now, I'm available now. So, we've been wanting to box for the longest time. Why not me and Anderson go out there and put it on for the people?!"

Silva was an excellent striker in his heyday -- and as RJJ points out, Anderson had a stint as a pro boxer before he switched to MMA.

In other words, "He knows how to pro box."

Anderson racked up a 34 and 11 record in MMA -- with wins over guys like Dan Henderson, Forrest Griffin, Vitor Belfort, Rich Franklin and more.

Jones says there's no doubt he would DESTROY Silva if the two fought during Roy's prime years -- "but now that I'm older and I'm older than him ... it's something good to look at now because I think his chances are better now than they ever were before."

Jake Paul is firing back at Canelo Alvarez for kicking 2 of the YouTube star's fans out of the ring during his post-fight interview on Saturday ... calling the champion an "old hater" who's ducking the real competition.

Of course, Canelo and Jake have had a beef brewing for months ... with the 30-year-old boxer saying the Paul brothers are disrespecting the sport of boxing.

The feud reached new levels when fans -- donning Jake and Ben Askren's faces on their shirts -- invaded the ring after Alvarez's dominant win over Avni Yildirim ... with Canelo telling them to "get the f*** out."

Jake is now speaking out about the incident ... and while he's not saying whether he knew about the prank beforehand, he's mad at how Alvarez handled the situation.

"Canelo, what's your problem, bro?! Why you hate me so much?!," Jake said on Tuesday.

"Canelo's mad. He has this thing against me. Said I'm bad for the sport. I'm disrespecting it, which doesn't make sense at all."

"I'm actually just bringing more eyeballs, more awareness to the sport of boxing. But since Canelo, you wanted to start this beef, let's do it!"

Jake goes on to say Canelo isn't the true pound-for-pound fighter in the world ... claiming he's hiding from real competition.

"Why not fight Caleb Plant? David Benavidez? BooBoo Andrade? You're ducking them. You're ducking them, Canelo! You're an old hater, that's what you are."

But, Canelo ain't the only boxing superstar going after Paul -- heavyweight champ Tyson Fury also had some words for Jake, seemingly trying to get him to fight his little brother, Tommy Fury.

Paul has some words for the Gypsy King as well ... saying he likes the guy and wants no beef -- but Tommy is a different story.

"If Tyson Fury took a s**t, it would be his little brother."

UFC rising star Khamzat Chimaev is NOT moving on from MMA, despite a cryptic IG post suggesting otherwise, this according to Dana White.

26-year-old Khamzat -- one of the hottest rising stars in the sport (9-0 record) -- has been battling COVID since January 2021 ... and he's still suffering from symptoms.

In fact, Khamzat's manager said the fighter was even hospitalized due to some pretty serious symptoms at one point.

Fast-forward to Monday night ... when Khamzat went to Instagram and posted an apparent farewell note to his fans.

"I think I’m done," Khamzat said ... "Yes, I know that I didn’t take the belt, but this is not the most important victory in this life. It may upset you, but my heart and body tell me everything.

He also posted a photo of a blood-spattered bathroom sink with the caption, "The main thing is I do not know what this disease is but it is not easily outlived."

But, Dana White says he spoke with Khamzat -- who's currently in Las Vegas -- and he's not buying the retirement talk.

"When he got here, the doctors took care of him, and they put him on prednisone, which is a nasty f**king steroid,” White told MMA Junkie.

"So he’s on prednisone, and he’s supposed to be taking this thing and chilling, relaxing, and letting himself recover. He went in and f**king trained today, felt like s**t, and got super emotional and posted that."

“He’s not supposed to be training, but you know, this guy’s a savage. He wants to fight like every f**king weekend, and now he can’t even train, so he just got emotional and posted that, but he ain’t quitting.”