Gossip / Rumors

TBE is firing back at reports he can't pay off his tax liability from that year and has asked Uncle Sam to cut him a break until after he gets his check from the McGregor fight.

FYI, 2015 is the year he fought Manny Pacquiao -- for which he reportedly hauled in roughly $220 million. He also made $32 mil for fighting Andre Berto later that year.

But late Monday night, Mayweather issued a statement essentially saying he's still super rich with no real tax issues.

"While everyone is counting my money and assuming the worst, these are the facts... Uncle Sam, received $26,000,000.00 from me in 2015! What else could they possibly want?"

"I'm sure I would have been notified much sooner if there were any real discrepancies right?"

"Bottom line, everybody just wants to be a part of the 'Money May' show, including the IRS! That's fine, you can crunch numbers all day but in the end, my empire is rock solid and intact! Now Calculate That!"

He also played Donald Trump's "fake news" card -- saying, "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, especially when it comes to media in this country."

The issue with Mayweather's check is this ... it doesn't seem remotely close to the federal tax rate obligation he would owe.

If he made $250 mil -- and let's generously say he wrote off $50 mil -- he still owes taxes on $200 mil. And the going federal tax rate for people with high income is 39.6%.

So, he would owe closer to $80 MILLION -- not $26 mil.

Ben Affleck's looking more and more like he's locking in 'SNL' producer Lindsay Shookus as his new gf ... 'cause they had a coffee/juice date Monday morning.

Ben and Lindsay grabbed Starbucks in Brentwood after apparently spending the weekend together. They reportedly had a dinner date Thursday night at Giorgio Baldi ... one of Ben's fave spots.

We broke the story ... Ben and Jen Garner officially filed for divorce earlier this year. We were told they were already seeing other people.

Blac Chyna's alleged ex-bf might be getting ready to spill more of her secrets ... but he still thinks Rob Kardashian's revenge porn stunt was wrong.

We got Pilot Jones leaving Rostrum Records in L.A. -- where he's currently filming a reality show -- and we asked what he made of Rob's social media eruption.

Pilot's response seems pretty tame for someone who's supposedly about to dish even more dirt about Chyna.. As we reported ... he plans to accuse her of a breach of dating ethics.

Still, he doesn't condone posting her nudes. Also ... karma.

Amanda Nunes once told us there was a 200% chance she'd beat Ronda Rousey.

Now, she's DOUBLING that number when it comes to beating Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 213 on Saturday.

TMZ Sports spoke with the UFC women's bantamweight champ -- who guaranteed a 2nd victory over Shevchenko in their highly anticipated rematch.

The two previously battled it out at UFC 196 back in March 2016 -- a fight Nunes won by unanimous decision. Shevchenko says she's out for revenge. Nunes has other plans.

So, what's next if Nunes wins? Hopefully, a superfight with Cris "Cyborg" Justino. We asked her about that too.

Brandi Glanville had carte blanche to criticize or poke fun at Joanna Krupa's genitals ... at least that's what Brandi claimed under oath.

Brandi was deposed in the infamous smelly vagina lawsuit filed by Joanna -- and told Joanna's lawyer ... she "didn't say anything that I knew to be false." You'll recall ... Brandi made the vajayjay claim during a 2015 'Watch What Happens Live' appearance.

According to the depo transcript, obtained by TMZ, Brandi also said you get what you sign up for when you're on a reality show. Joanna's lawyer asked, "Do you think that means you can say things like her pu**y smells?" Glanville replied, "Well, yeah."

Brandi also reiterated her claim the 'Housewives' contract bars cast members from suing each other. She insists being on the show means dealing with "the good, the bad and the ugly that comes along with it."

Amelia Earhart indeed survived her plane crash, but an upcoming documentary claiming to have photo evidence is crazy ... so claims a man who has made the mystery his lifelong mission.

Ric Gillespie, owner of TIGHAR -- an organization long involved in the search for Earhart -- tells TMZ he's known about this photo for a year and on many levels he knows Amelia's not in the pic.

The new documentary claims Earhart became a captive in the South Pacific after her crash and claims her captors can be seen all around her in the photo.

Gillespie says there were a lot of mercenaries in that area at the time ... so it could be any white woman in the pic -- the features aren't recognizable.

Secondly ... based on where Earhart took flight in New Guinea, Ric says she would not have had enough fuel to get to the Marshall Islands, where the photo was allegedly taken. According to Ric, her last signal was picked up hundreds of miles from that location.

Finally, Gillespie believes the photo simply doesn't match up with the captive theory. He points out none of the alleged captors have guns or look threatening. He thinks it's just a photo showing people hanging out on the wharf on Jaluit Atoll -- part of the Marshall Islands.

Gillespie and TIGHAR still stand by their theory -- Amelia survived her plane crash and died as a castaway on the Pacific island of Nikumaroro, Kiribati.

Andre Berto is pissed about Manny Pacquiao's loss to Jeff Horn for the WBO title over the weekend, telling TMZ Sports the controversial decision was "a whole bunch of bulls**t."

We spoke with the former welterweight champ about the outrage surrounding Pac-Man's unanimous 12th round loss on Sunday ... and the Beast is clearly siding with the critics who think the judges butchered the call.

But Berto thinks Manny will "handle his business" and get his belt back ... amid rumors that Pacquiao is seriously considering retirement.

Rob Kardashian got tipped off that Blac Chyna was allegedly cheating on him by the baby mama of "the other guy."

Sources connected with Rob and Chyna tell TMZ ... Rob got a DM 2 weeks ago from the woman who had a baby with rapper Ferrari. She claimed Ferrari and Chyna had been intimate for 2 months.

Ferrari's baby mama blew the whistle just after Rob reconciled with Chyna. He wasn't sure if the woman was telling the truth, so he began confronting people, starting with Ferrari.

We're told Ferrari denied he was hooking up with Chyna, but Rob persisted and then confronted her. We're told Chyna also denied it.

Fast-forward to the weekend, when Ferrari posted a pic of himself in Chyna's bed ... especially galling because Rob says he paid for the bed. Ferrari was wearing Rob's Versace robe ... which enraged him.

Amelia Earhart survived what everyone thought was a fatal flight and ended up a prisoner of war ... this according to a new documentary.

As everyone knows, almost 80 years ago to the day, Earhart took off in her Lockheed Electra from New Guinea and vanished. Neither her plane nor her body were ever found. She was presumed dead.

But a new documentary -- "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence" -- shows a photo taken on a South Pacific island days after she disappeared. The doc claims Amelia is in the photo, sitting on a dock, surrounded by people who might be her captors.

Bob the Drag Queen is calling out LL Cool J and Chrissy Teigen -- insisting their show, "Lip Sync Battle," copied "RuPaul's Drag Race," and not the other way around.

Bob, who won season 8 of 'Drag Race,' ... wants to shut up the haters who claim the recent season 9 finale ripped off the 'LSB' format. Bob says his show's always featured a sudden death lip sync battle between the show's lowest scoring drag queens.

Not to mention, 'Drag Race' was already on its 7th season when 'LSB' premiered.

Bottom line -- don't come for Bob, 'Lip Sync' fans, and she won't come for you.

Jay-Z's using his wife's playbook to push his new album, "4:44" -- making personal revelations about cheating and his mother's sexuality.

Hov opens his title track apologizing to Beyonce, and says it took the birth of their daughter, Blue Ivy, to change his womanizing ways. It's interesting ... he also refers to his newborn twins as "natural." The assumption is he wants everyone to know they didn't use in vitro.

Then there's "Smile" where he rhymes ... "Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/ Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian.”

There's also a shot at Eric Benet on the album opener, "Killing Jay Z." Hov raps, "You almost went Eric Benet/ Let the baddest girl in the world get away." Benet's marriage to Halle Berry ended after he cheated on her.

Benet, who is now married to Prince's ex, Manuela Testolini, has already responded.

Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough are firing right back at President Trump ... claiming he reached out to help them fend off an unflattering report about their relationship, but with a major string attached.

The co-hosts/engaged couple claim several Trump administration officials called them repeatedly with the offer over a National Enquirer story about them having an affair -- but they said Joe had to call the President first.

They made it seem like the offer was ... grovel to Trump, and he'll have the story killed.

Joe and Mika dropped the bombshell allegation on "Morning Joe" Friday morning. They actually canceled vacation plans so they could be on the air to respond to Trump's Thursday morning tweets -- where he claimed Mika was bleeding from a facelift when they begged him to attend a party at Mar-a-Lago.

As for that claim ... they addressed it straight on, and told a much different story about how they ended up at the President's New Year's bash -- and the facelift? Mika copped to having a procedure, but added ... that's far from the biggest issue here. She's right.

Interestingly, she also did exactly what Trump did -- plastic surgery shaming. Poor form?

Trump has already responded on Twitter, calling them liars.

But wait ... there's more. Joe just responded and said Trump's lying and he can prove it.

Doc Rivers says reports he shot down an opportunity to deal away his son, Austin Rivers, for Carmelo Anthony are pure BS ... telling TMZ Sports bluntly, "That's not true."

The Clippers honcho was leaving Madeo in Bev Hills Wednesday night when we asked if Chris Paul's departure meant it was a "sad day" for the team.

"I don't know if it's sad or not," Rivers said ... "We'll find that out."

He praised Paul as a "great Clipper" and added, "I wish Chris well."

Amber Rose and 21 Savage haven't said they're official but it ain't hard to read between the lines.

Amber and the rapper broke bread at Catch in WeHo Wednesday night ... the second time they've been seen out in a week.

Side note -- Amber just might've made the perfect audition tape with our camera guy for a role in the 'Fast & Furious' films.

Strap in, Savage, it's gonna be a wild ride.

Even President Donald Trump wants to know what's going on with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers ... so, he went right to the owner and asked him.

Dan Gilbert happened to be at the White House Wednesday -- along with the Chicago Cubs (who are in town to play the Nationals) and Trump brought them all together for a high level introduction.

While introducing Gilbert to guys like Joe Maddon, Kris Bryant, Jon Lester and others ... he turned to Gilbert and asked how he's doing with LeBron James.

It appeared Gilbert responded, "Good, yeah."

Interesting situation for two reasons -- First, Bron isn't a Trump fan. Second, there's talk LeBron could leave Cleveland after next season.

Gilbert didn't drop any bombshells ... it was just interesting watching him handle that situation.

Bill Cosby just lashed out in the most bizarre way, saying reports that he's conducting town hall meetings on sexual assault are just "propaganda" ... despite the fact his P.R. people announced the meetings.

Cosby just said, "The current propaganda that I am going to conduct a sexual assault tour is false any further information about public plans will be given at the appropriate time."

Here's the problem ... Cosby's spokespeople, Andrew Wyatt and Ebonee Benson came on "TMZ Live" Thursday and said the town halls would absolutely take place. We even questioned them about statements Cosby might make that could be used against him in his sexual assault retrial, and they said Cosby's lawyers didn't have a problem with it -- that they would coach him on what to say and not say.

Wyatt and Benson made similar comments the day before on "Good Day Alabama."