UFC

Henry Cejudo says he's "dumbfounded" that Conor McGregor thinks he deserves a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov ... telling TMZ Sports the guy needs to shut up and fight Justin Gaethje to prove he's worthy!

The UFC's reigning flyweight and bantamweight champ went off on Conor -- WITH JUSTIN -- saying McGregor is a bad guy who doesn't deserve a title shot without going through a quality opponent first.

And Henry thinks Gaethje is the PERFECT dance partner.

"Yeah, that man likes to sucker punch the elderly," Cejudo says about McGregor ... "Yeah, that man  does terror attacks in our country and he thinks he can get the next title shot with Khabib."

"I know Khabib. Khabib's a man of honor and integrity. Everything that you're not, he is."

"But I got somebody that you could fight, to eventually fight for that title that you want ..."

Enter Gaethje ... who had some tough talk of his own.

"Triple C, the man is not going to fight me. What the f*ck do you gotta do?! He's running out of easy fights. I'm sitting here, smoking my CBD. Waiting for a motherf**ker to punch me in the face. Let's go, quit being a p***y!"

Cejudo added ... "Damn, there you go McGregor. Sign the contract."

Dana White is going to bat again for his pal Donald Trump ... stepping to the podium at POTUS' campaign rally Thursday and saying, "We gotta win this election again!"

The UFC honcho and Trump have been great friends for years ... and when No. 45 invited White to speak at his event in Colorado Springs, Colo. this week, Dana jumped at the opportunity.

White flew on Air Force One with DT ... and when Dana stepped to the podium in front of thousands of Trump supporters, he raved about his longtime buddy.

"I've known this man for 20 years," White said. "We’ve actually become even closer since he's become the President of the United States."

White added, "This guy is so loyal and such a good friend. Every time I see him, I saw him today, when I met him on Air Force One, the first thing he said to me is, 'How is your family?'"

Dana continued, "I see a lot of things from Mr. Trump that the public doesn’t see, and the people who surround me every day see how this man treats me as a friend and other people he's friends with."

"He's a fighter, he loves this country, he's doing great things for this country, and we gotta win this election again, ladies and gentlemen!"

Of course, White's public support for Trump is nothing new ... Dana spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016 when Trump was officially nominated.

Conor McGregor WILL get a victory in a rematch with Khabib ... so says Becky Lynch, who tells TMZ Sports she believes Conor's got a whole new strategy for The Eagle!!

"I think he's been working," the WWE superstar says. "You saw it in the last fight. He's got a new game plan, his head is firmly in it and I think he wins it."

Becky admits she is biased -- she's from Ireland, after all -- and tells us, "Of course I'm going to say me countryman!"

But, The Man clearly believes Conor's got a real shot regardless.

"I think he's got that dedication," Becky says. "He backs it up, man. He backs it up."

The last time Conor and Khabib squared off in the Octagon ... things didn't go so well for the Notorious, who lost after he tapped out in the 4th round.

And, it remains to be seen if Khabib will even get in the cage a second time with Conor ... he just said earlier this month he wouldn't fight McGregor again for $100 MILLION!!!

Wanna see one of the baddest females in the world nearly choke the life outta a TMZ employee?!?

We thought so.

29-year-old Bellator champ Ilima-Lei Macfarlane came through the TMZ office ... and naturally our in-house crash test dummy, Lucas Widman got a one-on-one demo of her triangle choke.

Lucas -- who's faced MMA stars like Jon Jones, Paige VanZant and Brian Ortega -- tapped QUICK ... like Chris Johnson's 40-time quick.

No shocker there ... Macfarlane is a killer in the cage -- the 29-year-old is an undefeated 11-0.

The crazy part ... Ilima-Lei sat down with Michael J. Babcock and told him she only got into MMA a few years ago, so she could drop weight she put on during college.

Little did she know she'd turn into one of the best damn fighters in the game.

Ninja, ZeRo, Ronda Rousey???

Yep, the WWE Superstar just inked a deal with Facebook Gaming ... and Rousey is set to stream exclusively on FB.

Ronda made the announcement on Thursday ... saying, “Gaming has always been a huge part of my life, and I can’t wait to share that passion with my millions of fans on Facebook Gaming. Through my streams, people can hang out with the real me, not the ‘character’ version of myself they’re used to seeing, though the ‘Rowdy One’ can’t always be contained.”

“In recent years, games have been a great way for me to keep my mind active when my body is too sore or tired to move."

"One of my favorite gaming memories happened when I was 11 years old and encountered an Articuno on Pokemon Blue for the first time. I was awestruck and thought she looked like an angel," Rousey says.

"Looking back at that same image now, I’m amazed how powerful our imaginations can be and how gaming encourages us to imagine what our reality could be instead of just accepting it for what it is—a skill that has helped me in my fighting and entertainment careers countless times.”

Facebook has been heavy into gaming lately ... signing some of the biggest gamers to 7-figure deals -- and they obviously see Ronda as someone with a huge audience and credibility as a gamer.

Remember, Rousey is in Mortal Kombat 11 ... where she plays the iconic character, Sonya Blade.

More trouble for former UFC star BJ Penn ... the fighting legend is reportedly under police investigation for DUI after crashing his truck in Hawaii last week.

Police in Hilo tell Big Island Now, Penn was driving a black Toyota Tacoma pickup at around 7 PM on Feb. 7 when it crashed along a main highway.

Cops say a 911 caller indicated 41-year-old Penn had been speeding ... and say the crash was gnarly, with the truck losing control and flipping into an area near a mall.

TMZ Sports has learned Penn was taken to the hospital after the accident ... but we're told he's okay and was released shortly after.

Puna Patrol Cpt. Ken Quiocho says the investigation into Penn for possible drunk driving remains open.

It's the latest in a string of recent issues for Penn ... who was at the center of TWO street fights in Hawaii the last couple months. Most recently, he got knocked out in a slug-fest outside the Lava Shack on the Big Island in a fight captured on video.

Things have gotten so bad for Penn, at least optically, UFC honcho Dana White said he will never allow Penn to fight again in his league.

"What I saw in that video was sad," White said of the footage of Penn brawling in the Hawaii streets ... "And, I love the kid and I hope he gets his life together."

"If BJ Penn needed me, all he needs to do is pick up the phone and ask."

Jon Jones would take the first REAL L of his fighting career if he stepped in the WWE ring with Roman Reigns ... so says the wrestling superstar himself!!

"It would be a hell of a fight," Reigns tells TMZ Sports. "But when it comes to the squared circle, I don't think there's anybody better in the world [than me]. So, yeah, I feel VERY comfortable being in the ring with Jon Jones."

Of course, a WWE scrap between the two massive fight stars is now a possibility because Jones just told Sports Illustrated this week a move to the squared circle at some point is "inevitable."

When we got Reigns out at L.A.'s new Sofi Stadium (the home of WrestleMania 37 in 2021!!), he told us he would LOVE to be a part of a bout with the UFC legend in the future.

"Oh, for sure, man," Roman says. "Someone like Jon Jones, I mean, if you're going to step in the WWE ring, you're most likely going to want to step in there with the big dog."

As for how Jones would fare outside of a match with Reigns ... Roman says he believes Jon's got a chance to be a real superstar in the WWE.

By the way, Reigns also gave some advice to Dwayne Johnson's daughter, Simone Johnson, who's now training to be a WWE Superstar.

Roman tells us he'd like to see her blaze her own trail with the future of her character, as opposed to following in the footsteps of "The Rock" ... saying, "It's better to create your stuff."

Corey Anderson has zero love for Jon Jones, but he's pumped the UFC star beat Dominick Reyes ... 'cause he tells TMZ Sports now he'll be the first to take down the MMA legend.

Anderson -- the #5 ranked UFC light heavyweight -- is taking on Jan Blachowicz at UFC Fight Night 167 on Saturday ... and if Corey wins, there's a great chance the prize is Jon.

We talked to Anderson about Jones vs. Reyes ... and the LHW title contender says he totally understands why a lot of people think Jon lost, but he's happy as hell he got the W.

"While I was watching I was like, 'Man, I could lose the opportunity to be the one that beats Jon.'"

Anderson continued ... "At the end, I’m happy that Jon got the win because I get to be the one to dethrone him. I knew if Dom would’ve won, they would do the rematch. And I'd have to wait for that."

FYI -- Jon's one and only (controversial) loss came against Matt Hamill in 2009 ... when he was disqualified for throwing illegal elbows. Jones was dominating the fight.

Corey says he believes Dom exposed Jon ... and when he eventually faces the champ, he'll hand him an even more severe beating.

"Like I said when I saw it going on, my mindset was, 'yeah, I knew he was beatable.' I was the one who always said, 'I know I can beat Jon.' I know ways to beat him, I see the holes. I see what you gotta do to beat him, and Dom went out there, did pretty much a lot of it."

Jon Jones LOVED the first fight between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov -- but tells TMZ Sports if they run it back, expect another long night for the Irishman.

It's no secret Conor desperately wants a second crack at Khabib after he tapped out at UFC 229 back in Oct. 2018. Khabib recently said he has no interest in giving that "idiot" a rematch.

But, chances are it's more likely to happen than not -- so we asked Jon Jones who he'd pick if they do it again.

"If I would put my money on it, I'm definitely going with Khabib," Jones said ... "For sure."

"I think the cards are always kind of in Khabib's hands. But, Conor definitely has a chance."

Jon says he believes wrestlers typically have the advantage since they can dictate if the fight goes to the mat or not -- and obviously, Khabib has the superior ground game.

Dance it out before you punch it out!!!

That's what UFC stars Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero did on Friday when they came face to face at a media event in Houston!!!

The two middleweights are set to throw down at UFC 248 on March 7 -- so tensions were high when they both took the stage for a stare-down.

There was trash talk. There were mean mugs. And, then -- out of nowhere -- there was a dance battle!!!

Adesanya busted out some cool moves -- but Yoel busted out a full BACK HANDSPRING!!!

Just as Israel was getting ready to respond with another round of moves, Dana White got involved and chilled them both out ... 'cause nobody wants to see an injury!!!

Israel has become one of the most entertaining fighters in all of MMA -- remember, he busted out a choreographed dance routine during his walk out to fight Robert Whittaker at UFC 243 back in October.

The dance only makes us think ... HOW GREAT IS THE UFC 248 WALK OUT GONNA BE?!?

UFC rising star Katlyn Chookagian says she's gonna whoop Valentina Shevchenko and snatch her belt ... and after that, she's got her eye on Amanda Nunes.

TMZ Sports talked to 31-year-old Chookagian (13-2) last week in NYC ... and the #1 ranked UFC strawweight (125 lbs.) laid out her blueprint for taking over women's MMA.

Step 1 ... beat Shevchenko at UFC 247 this weekend, which would be massive considering Valentina hasn't lost a fight since her war with Nunes in 2017.

"Obviously I'm gonna hear, 'And new!'" KC says.

"No matter where it goes, I'm better than her standing and on the ground. So wherever it goes, I'm gonna be dominant."

Katlyn also says she's down to move up a weight class and fight Amanda Nunes next ... in what could be a chance to be the UFC's next "champ champ."

"The good thing is that I fought at 135 [lbs.]. I fought there before and I won. I feel comfortable."

"125 [lbs.], I feel like a killer, and I feel bigger. But, I fought [at 135 lbs.] before and I'm comfortable there. Win this fight, I would definitely consider going up."

Nunes is widely regarded as the greatest female MMA fighter EVER -- with wins over legends like  Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Valentina Shevchenko, Miesha Tate and Holly Holm.

But, Chookagian ain't scared -- saying if Nunes is still the champ, she's down to scrap.

Kobe Bryant wasn't just a UFC fan -- he was a big investor -- and got a huge distribution check from the company just days before he passed away ... so says Dana White.

The NBA legend was famous for his business savvy off the court -- and White says part of Kobe's portfolio was an ownership stake in UFC and Body Armor, the official energy drink of the UFC.

White tells TMZ Sports ... that 2019 was the most successful year in UFC history which resulted in massive payouts for all of the investors.

"Kobe got a distribution from the UFC the Wednesday before the incident and he was so pumped up and excited and he said what everybody always says, 'I wish I had invested more!'"

White says he'll remember Kobe as a great dude and an important part of the UFC fabric -- and tells us the organization plans to honor Kobe on Saturday at UFC 247 in Houston.

As for the fight card, White says he's extremely fired up about the main event -- Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes -- telling us Reyes is a dangerous man with a real shot to beat the G.O.A.T.

And, if Reyes wins, there will no doubt be a rematch.

There's more ... after the controversy between Joe Rogan and Stephen A. Smith following the Conor McGregor vs. Cowboy Cerrone fight, we asked if the two TV stars would be working together at UFC 247, Dana replied, "I don't think so."

Remember, Rogan said he was upset with the ESPN host for crapping all over Cowboy's "atrocious" performance during the UFC 246 post-fight show.

Smith said he felt like Cowboy quit -- to which Rogan essentially said Smith's opinion was uninformed and just plain wrong.

Conor McGregor felt Smith disrespected Cowboy and publicly called for Stephen A. to apologize.

UFC star Tyron Woodley says he's been training like a MANIAC in the jungles of Thailand -- and has a warning for his next opponent Leon Edwards, "You gonna get f*cked up."

Woodley and Edwards are set to throw down at UFC Fight Night on March 21 in London ... and Tyron says he realizes he can't have ANY distractions, so he flew out to a remote part of Thailand to train.

"I was in the motherf*cking jungle for real," Woodley says ... "There were monkeys walking on my window sill. Snakes. Bats."

Tyron says he liked Thailand so much, he plans to go back for his full training camp leading up to the Edwards fight ... explaining he's laser focused on getting the "W."

"My kids need to see their dad win again ... so the most important thing for me is the victory."

As for Edwards, Tyron says he knows Leon's been talking trash -- and he LOVES it -- because it's giving him even more motivation to win.

"I'm just gonna f*ck Leon Edwards up so bad that everybody's gonna be like, 'Why did you match them up?' This is a mismatch. Dana, you should lose your job for this."

There's a LOT more in this week's episode of "The Hollywood Beatdown" ... including Tyron's thoughts on the rest of the UFC welterweight division -- from Kamaru Usman to Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal.

Tyron also breaks down the Offset strip club incident, the Gervonta Davis arrest and Beyonce and Jay-Z at the Super Bowl.

Jon Jones says he's radically changed his diet for his upcoming fight with Dominick Reyes -- telling TMZ Sports, "About 80% of my meals have gone plant based now."

The UFC superstar has been a big fan of meat in the past -- he even promoted the ButcherBox meat company on his Instagram in 2019.

But Jones tells us he's switching things up for his UFC 247 fight against Reyes -- and decided to cut a bunch of animal protein out of his diet this time around.

"I switched up my diet a little bit, I started eating plant based," Jones says.

"Cardio feels great, I’m lighter than I normally am. Normally I weigh at least 222 around this time. Right now I’m already 215. So I’m ahead of schedule majorly in my weight cut, which just allows me to focus on happiness and relaxation, and I just feel perfect."

Jones says he's laser-focused and ready to fight on Feb. 8 -- and is gunning for a highlight reel-style knockout -- but as long as he gets the "W," that's all that matters.

"It’d be nice to make WorldStarHipHop for some awesome KO, or make TMZ for some awesome KO. But that’s not really my style."

"I feel like when you go out there and you tell people, ‘I’m gonna knock this guy out right away’ and then you find yourself going into the 4th round and you still haven’t gotten that KO. You start panicking in your head a little bit when your plan is going wrong."

How the hell do you defend against those legendary Jon Jones elbow strikes?

UFC star Dominick Reyes believes he's got the answer -- and he's demonstrating his violent plan on one of our TMZ staffers!

Of course, Dom and Jon Jones are set to do battle at UFC 247 in Houston on Saturday -- in a fight for the UFC light heavyweight title. It's the biggest fight of Dominick's impressive career.

And, since Jon Jones recently came into the office and taught our own Lucas the art of the elbow strike ... we thought it would be a good idea to see if he could test out his skills on Dom!

The good news ... Reyes is ready and has a plan to keep Jon's elbows out of his mouth by essentially beating him to the punch.

"You gotta strike first," Reyes said while demonstrating his counterattack ... "It's so simple, it just might work!"

We also spoke with Reyes about why he's 100% confident he'll be the very first man to give Jones a legitimate L in the Octagon.

"It's just my time. Simple as that. I've worked my whole life for this."

Reyes says he's played out the first a million times in his head and couldn't be more ready.

As for Jones, he's the champ for a reason.

Khabib Nurmagomedov says he has NO interest in fighting "idiot" Conor McGregor a second time -- even for $100 MILLION -- saying, "Why do I need that kind of money?!"

The UFC superstar was speaking with reporters in his native Dagestan Tuesday when he was asked about the comments his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, made to TMZ Sports about moguls in Saudi Arabia offering $100 mil to host the rematch.

That's when Khabib scoffed at the possibility -- saying he's only focused on fighting Tony Ferguson in April -- but says that kind of money could be better used by helping the needy.

"Why do I need that kind of money?" Khabib said ... "There are so many organizations. For example, there’s not only [soccer] for the blind, there’s sambo and other sports."

"Let [the UFC] give it to them if they don’t know what to do with the money. But giving me $100 million for me to beat up that idiot again? I don’t think that’s rational."

When asked if there was interest in a rematch with Conor -- as McGregor has called for numerous times -- Khabib replied, "Not at all."

The comment was met with cheers from the Dagestani crowd.

As for his April 18 fight with Ferguson, Khabib called it a "very serious fight" ... and he's been training like a maniac.

"For the past month and a half, I’ve been consistently training day and night. I’ve gotten myself in good shape to where I’m supposed to be 70 days before a fight. I feel great."

Guessing McGregor will respond.

Stay tuned ...