MMA

The Brangelina breakup ain't fazing Anastasia Yankova ... 'cause the Bellator fighter and model says she goes for guys a lot tougher than Brad Pitt.

TMZ Sports spoke to Anastasia about being a rising star in MMA (she's currently 4-0) ... as well as how it affects her dating life.

"Do you see me? My nose is broken. My ear is broken," Yankova says. "Guys like Brad Pitt don't understand what happened because I'm crazy (to) a normal guy."

FYI -- Anastasia just handled Veta Arteaga at Bellator 161 last week, which explains the black eye.

Your loss, Brad.

Anthony Bourdain has split with Ottavia Busia, his wife of 9 years ... but the two are still on pretty good terms, all things considered.

Sources close to the celebrity chef say the relationship hasn't been hot for quite some time now ... but they remain close. They married in 2007. They have a 9-year-old daughter together.

Ottavia -- a trained jiu-jitsu fighter -- implied Anthony's demanding travel schedule for his show 'Parts Unknown' played a role in the split.

"Because of professional decisions we both have made, my husband and I have been for years in an unconventional relationship. Nothing has changed. We love each other," she said in a statement to Page Six.

"We respect the decisions the other has made. And we’ll always consider ourselves a family."

As for Anthony -- who also trains in MMA -- he isn't talking about the split, but was out with Nate and Nick Diaz over the weekend.

How bad do skateboarding injuries hurt? Bad enough to willingly go a round with an MMA superstar in the Octagon ... 'cause Ryan Sheckler says he'd rather take a punch from Conor McGregor than relive his worst encounter with concrete.

Sheckler -- who has had his fair share of skating injuries -- says the temporary pain from getting KO'd wouldn't even come close to what he's gone through.

"You gotta feel like I'd be knocked down in 10 seconds," Sheckler says. "The skateboarding injuries suck. The concrete sucks. So if I can get hit real quick and out, I'll take that."

"It just seems a lot simpler ... and no recovery time at the end."

Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin are gonna fight ... 'cause there's too much damn cash at stake not to ... so says one of the best MMA fighters of all time.

TMZ Sports talked to Tito Ortiz in L.A. Thursday night ... and asked the UFC legend whether the fight every boxing fan wants to see ... Alvarez vs. GGG ... will ever go down.

FYI -- people in the boxing world have accused Canelo of ducking Golovkin.

Tito's adamant the fighters WILL square off ... and explains why money -- not fear -- is why the men haven't thrown down.

Check out the clip!

UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie -- one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time -- is pulling the plug on his 22 year marriage ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Gracie filed divorce docs in L.A. County Superior Court seeking to end his marriage to Marianne Cuttic.

The two were married back in 1994 and have 4 children together -- 3 of them are under the age of 18.

In the docs, 49-year-old Gracie cites irreconcilable differences for the split -- but the most interesting part ... he's the one demanding spousal support. He also wants her to pay his attorneys fees.

Shocking, considering Gracie is one of the most famous MMA fighters ever -- and just fought Ken Shamrock at Bellator 149 back in February.

Marianne is a podiatrist in Los Angeles.

Royce is requesting joint physical and legal custody of their minor kids.

According to multiple reports, Gracie and his wife have been battling with the I.R.S. -- which has accused them of owing more than $1 million in back taxes.

UFC stud Mickey Gall says it was "an honor" to be spoofed by WWE after his fight with CM Punk -- but admits, it was probably meant to be a shot at the former wrestler.

Gall appeared on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs Tuesday night on FS1) -- when we asked about WWE recreating the UFC 203 match at the "Backlash" Pay-Per-View event the next day.

"That's cool, man," Gall said ... "It's an honor."

As for what inspired the spoof, Gall says ... "I think it's not so much me but their feelings against him ... so, I guess thats kinda crappy. But you know, hey, I loved it."

And, now that he's a famous athlete, we asked which Kardashian he wants to bang. Check out his answer.

There's a lot more on the show tonight -- and Gall tells us which big UFC event he's campaigning to fight at next.

Paige VanZant says she would LOVE to see CM Punk fight in the UFC again -- but realistically, he's just too old to become a great MMA fighter.

"I love CM Punk. I wanted him to do well. I think he's just a little too old for it," Paige told us in NYC.

VanZant makes it clear she's a big fan -- and says Punk's fight was GREAT for the entire UFC ... but says at 37, Punk doesn't have the time to put in enough jiu-jitsu training to compete with the best.

Conor McGregor's pumped to make 'Call of Duty' an even bigger smash hit.

We ran into the UFC star Monday cruising down Sunset and we ask him about being in the new "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare" video game. Check out the vid ... Conor's got his sights set on breaking sales records.

Jean-Claude Van Damme doesn't just talk the talk when it comes to MMA fighting -- he's a REAL athlete who coulda competed in the UFC back in his prime ... so says Roy "Big Country" Nelson.

Roy isn't just an accomplished UFC fighter in his own right -- but spent some quality time with JCVD on the set of the upcoming "Kickboxer: Vengeance" flick.

And with Van Damme recently lecturing UFC fighters about how weak their leg strikes have become -- we had to ask Roy if he thinks JC could back up his tough talk.

For the record, Van Damme is an accomplished martial artist -- who won several fights as a teenager before becoming an action star.

There's more ... we also asked Roy how he'd fare in a showdown with Hafthor Bjornsson -- the MASSIVE guy who plays The Mountain on "Game of Thrones."

The 400-pound Bjornsson famously had a sparring session against Conor McGregor -- but Nelson says he'd get CRUSHED against someone his own size.

Bad news for Kim Zolciak ... the Buffalo Bills have 86'd her husband, Kroy Biermann, in their latest round of cuts.

Brock Lesnar is DONE in the UFC -- and will never fight in the Octagon ever again, despite his hopes for a comeback ... so says Alistair Overeem.

Overeem is one of the few guys who actually beat Lesnar during his MMA career -- so when we saw him at LAX, we asked if there was a chance we'd ever see a rematch.

Problem is ... according to Alistair, we'll never see another Brock match, period -- following the drug allegations surrounding UFC 200.

You can see in the video Alistair has A LOT more he wants to say ... but bites his tongue.

It's interesting considering we just got Brock out earlier this month and he told us a UFC return was still a possibility.

We'll see ...

Meet Destanie Yarbrough ... the pro football player turned MMA BADASS who's stepping up to fight the most intimidating woman in all of combat sports, Gabi Garcia.

You already know Gabi ... she's Anderson Silva's protege -- and she's so terrifying she's considered fighting men because the top female fighters are just too scared to take their chances in the ring.

Except one.

Yarbrough is destruction in motion on the football field as a running back in the Women's Football Alliance ... and has a reputation as one of the toughest athletes in the league.

She made the jump to MMA earlier this year and beat the living crap out of her first opponent.

We spoke with Destanie about her Sept. 25th fight against Gabi in Japan -- and one thing's clear ... SHE AIN'T SCARED!!!

There could be a HUGE new star in the world of women's MMA -- because the U.S. Olympian who just won the gold medal in wrestling says she's open to the idea of getting in the cage.

We spoke with Helen Maroulis -- the 24-year-old phenom who dominated the world at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio -- and asked her straight up if MMA is in her future.

Maroulis made it clear wrestling is her main priority and first love ... but says a transition to MMA is definitely a possibility down the road.

The best part of the video ... Maroulis says she'll 100% return to the Olympics in 2020 to defend her title.

UFC superstar Paige VanZant says she's on such good terms with Ronda Rousey after their heated encounter earlier this year ... she's decided to read her book ... and LIKES IT.

As we previously reported, Rousey confronted Paige at an event in L.A. back in April -- and cussed her out for congratulating Holly Holm on her victory at UFC 197.

VanZant says it's all water under the bridge -- "we're cool actually" -- and says she's learning a lot about Rousey in her book, "My Fight/Your Fight."

"It's really good and it's cool to kinda get inside and see the things that she's gone through that are similar to me," Paige said ... "So yeah ... no worries there."

Paige is gearing up to fight Bec Rawlings at UFC Fight Night in Vancouver on Saturday -- and essentially guarantees victory.

Jon Jones gave Snoop Dogg a private backstage MMA lesson in Albuquerque Tuesday night -- complete with a spinning back elbow tutorial ... and the whole thing was caught on video.

Snoop invited the UFC star to his dressing room before his show with Wiz Khalifa -- where they all did a little friendly slap fighting ... and Jones broke out a spinning elbow.

Snoop LOVED IT -- and demanded Jones teach him how to throw it himself. Jon complied.

It's a good thing Michael Bisping can multitask ... 'cause the UFC middleweight champ says he'll be training for his next fight against Dan Henderson while shooting his new movie in London.

Bisping locked up a role in the bare-knuckle boxing flick, "My Name Is Lenny" -- which starts filming this week. Bisping says his part will take roughly 2 weeks to complete.

But he also has a huge fight coming up against Hendo at UFC 204 in October -- just 7 weeks away.

So, how will he be able to prep for the fight and shoot the flick?

"My trainer's gonna come with me. I'm still gonna train every day. Film the movie. Come back. Focus on the fight. Kick some ass."

FYI, other fighters like Paige VanZant and Conor McGregor have turned down roles to focus on training camp -- but clearly, Bisping thinks he can handle both.