Boxing

YouTube superstars KSI and Logan Paul showed off their maturity and high respect for each other at their boxing rematch news conference in the UK on Monday.

Juuuust kidding ... there were tiny penis jokes and jabs about dead pet dogs.

The rivals met up in London on Monday to promote their upcoming rematch at Staples Center in L.A. in November ... and shocker, it basically turned into a roast.

KSI was quick to bring out the props -- with a 4-legged friend that looked just like Logan's late dog, Kong, who was tragically eaten by coyotes earlier this year.

Logan was anticipating the move though ... bringing out doggie treats to counter-burn KSI's burn.

"I'mma yoss you, guy," Logan said. "I'mma light your feet on fire, guy. I'mma kiss your mom on the cheek, my guy."

"I'm gonna win and I'm gonna make you a meme and you gon' be my bitch, bro," Logan added.

KSI didn't take it ... firing back at Paul with his own verbal punches. "I'm doing this for the UK, yo. I'mma go into your hometown and f**kin' punish you in front of everyone."

The angry bagel guy is now facing a big lawsuit after bailing on his "celebrity" boxing match with Dustin Diamond at the last minute.

According to new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... Chris Morgan is being sued by fight promoter Damon Feldman for $10,000. Damon claims Chris' change of heart cost him thousands of dollars in losses.

In the civil suit, the fight promoter claims Morgan signed a contract for a celebrity boxing match and pocketed appearance fees before pulling out of the fight.

You'll recall ... Chris surprised everyone hours before his Sept. 28 tangle with Screech, when he went on social media and said, "I fooled you all! I ain't coming to the fight."

Oscar De La Hoya is calling BS on an L.A. radio star who claims the boxing legend treated him like crap during his run with Golden Boy Promotions ... telling TMZ Sports his lawsuit is full of lies.

Oscar just broke his silence on the lawsuit filed by David Gonzalez -- famously known as "Tattoo" -- who accused De La Hoya of doing some seriously messed up stuff in his role as head of the company.

In his suit, Gonzalez -- who was hired to do announcing and PR stuff for Golden Boy -- claims Oscar would force him to run personal, non-work related errands ... sometimes while Oscar was "highly intoxicated and under the influence of various substances."

So, when we saw Oscar at LAX over the weekend, we asked him for his response to the accusations ... and that's when the boxer swung back.

Logan ain't the only Paul Brother KSI is looking to destroy in the ring ... the YouTube superstar-turned-boxer tells TMZ Sports he wants a boxing match with Jake Paul!!

We spoke with KSI about his plans following his rematch with Logan on Nov. 9 at Staples Center ... and he revealed he wants his next victim to be the guy who beat his little brother, Deji, last year.

"I want to fight Jake Paul, man. I really want to break his face," KSI tells us.

Of course, KSI and Logan's first matchup ended in a draw. If there would've been a clear winner, Jake says he would've been next in line to take on KSI.

The crowded heavyweight boxing landscape might have to make some room for an old tenant ... because Wladimir Klitschko might be making a return, according to his trainer.

We talked to Jonathan Banks, the man who trained Klitschko, and is training GGG for his huge fight this weekend against Sergiy Derevyanchenko Saturday night, and Banks hinted to us that Klitschko is contemplating a return. 

"After a conversation with him like a week ago maybe, now I can say anything's possible."

Wlad's last two losses are to Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, and he wasn't dominated in either fight, as a matter of fact, he dropped AJ in their fight, which was an all-time classic.

"I told him these exact words, 'If this is what you make up your mind to do, you have my 100% support.'"

WK is 43, making him much older than the dominant heavyweights today, but still, if you watch Banks talk, it seems he believes Klitschko can do it.

Madness at the weigh-in for the highly anticipated Claressa Shields vs. Ivana Habazin fight -- when Habazin's trainer was hospitalized after being sucker punched at the event.

James Ali Bashir was laying in a pool of his own blood after someone snuck up and socked him in the face HARD at the event in Flint, Michigan.

Emergency personnel raced to the Dort Federal Event Center to treat Bashir -- who was wheeled out of the facility on a stretcher while wearing a neck brace. Video was captured by FOX 66's Jonathan Deutsch.

Habazin was seen crying while standing over Bashir -- clearly very emotional.

Bashir is well known in the boxing world -- he worked under legendary trainer Emanuel Steward for 17 years and worked with guys like Wladimir Klitschko.

Cops have taken the suspect into custody but so far, that person's identity has not been revealed. There are rumblings the attacker was someone connected with Shields but so far, that has NOT been confirmed.

Shields was set to fight Habazin on Saturday night in the main event fight on Showtime. No word on the current status of that fight.

Shields issued a statement on social media ... saying, "I wanna thank everyone who came to weigh-in to support me. Because of the incident that took place, they had to clear the Dort federal for safety issues."

Conor McGregor has been charged with assault stemming from an April attack in an Irish pub ... and he's now fcaing up to 6 months in jail.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Conor walked into the Marble Arch Pub in Dublin on April 6 and punched a patron in the face after he refused a shot of Conor's Irish whiskey.

Cops investigated the incident and now a spokesperson for the Irish police tells us a court date has been set in the case, October 11th.

Conor is facing one count of assault, according to the Irish news outlet The Independent, which carries a maximum 6-month jail sentence if convicted.

Conor has spoken about the incident publicly ... telling ESPN in August, "I was in the wrong."

McGregor added, "That man deserved to enjoy his time in the pub without having to end the way it did."

During the ESPN interview, Conor said he tried to make amends with the victim but didn't specify how or if he was able to do that.

"But still, that doesn’t even matter. I was in the wrong," McGregor said.

In the meantime, Conor has said he wants to return to the UFC and fight again ... but no match has been set.

We reached out to McGregor's camp for comment. So far, no word back.

Gennady Golovkin says Canelo Alvarez should change his name to Amarillo Alvarez ... because the dude is straight-up SCARED to fight him a 3rd time.

(Note for all of our non-Spanish speaking friends, "amarillo" means yellow.)

GGG is set to fight Sergiy Derevyanchenko on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden ... but a lot of people are wondering why he's not gearing up to complete the trilogy with Canelo instead.

So, we asked Gennady ... and he essentially told us his team tried like hell to come to terms for a 3rd fight, but Canelo was ducking the smoke like he was Floyd Mayweather.

"Last time he said 'No,'" Golovkin tells TMZ Sports ... "Everybody push him, he said 'No.' I can't bring him!"

Oscar De La Hoya is being sued by a famous ex-Golden Boy Promotions employee -- who claims the boxing star would call him at all hours of the night to save him from situations when he was "highly intoxicated."

The man behind the suit is David Gonzalez -- a famous L.A. radio star known as Tattoo.

FYI -- Tattoo first appeared on Power 106 back in 2001 and agreed to have the words, "I slept with Shaq" tattooed on his forehead in exchange for Lakers' playoff tickets. He later got the tattoo removed.

But, Gonzalez says he was contacted by Golden Boy Promotions in 2010 to work for Oscar's company, mainly doing promotional work and announcing at events.

In his lawsuit, Gonzalez says things got weird quick ... and was ordered to "perform a wide range of highly personal, improper, and elicit non-work-related duties."

Justin Trudeau is trying to fight his way out of his blackface scandal ... by stepping into the ring with a black boxing champion.

The embattled Canadian Prime Minister put on a pair of gloves, slipped into some boxing trunks and threw on a sleeveless shirt to spar with boxing champ Ali Nestor Wednesday, ahead of the leader's huge debate in his quest for re-election.

Justin looked like he got in a great workout with Ali, a retired boxer who now runs a non-profit geared toward helping disadvantaged youth. Trudeau got some boxing tips from Ali, but more than anything ... this seems all about optics.

As you know ... Trudeau is embroiled in controversy after photos surfaced showing him in blackface when he was 29 years old.

Trudeau's apologized for what he says was a racist lapse of judgment when he dressed up as Aladdin back in the day, but some Canadians have been calling for him to step down and bow out of the race ... and Al Sharpton told us Justin's mea culpa rings hollow.

Evander Holyfield is just a few weeks shy of his 57th birthday ... but he's still ready to throw down -- and will fly to Japan for a charity exhibition in 2020.

Holyfield hasn't fought professionally since May 2011 (he beat Brian Nielsen) -- but "The Real Deal" says he's kept himself in prime shape ever since and he's ready to get back in the ring.

The details about the exhibition fight are unclear but Holyfield says he still thinks he's got the at signature knockout power.

Don't get it twisted, Holyfield says the goal is to raise money for people in need -- and not to annihilate his opponent -- so the bout will be more of a performance than a no-holds-barred fight.

"The big thing is to give people in Japan the opportunity to see the only 4-time heavyweight champion of the world."

In related Holyfield news, Evander's 21-year-old son Evan "Yung Holy" Holyfield is about to make his pro boxing debut on the undercard of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev fight.

Evan is taking on Nick Winstead in a 4-round junior middleweight matchup.

"Yung Holy" previously told TMZ Sports he thinks he can be better than his Hall of Fame father.

"My dad always tells me every generation gets better. It's pretty much easy to believe, number one it's in the bible, and the bible don't tell no lies."

Justin Bieber is siding with Logan Paul in his boxing rematch with KSI next month ... and guess who ain't happy about that???

Yup ... KSI tells TMZ Sports he has one message for Bieber -- "F*** you, Justin!!!"

The Biebs made his Team Paul allegiances known in the IG comments when the Nov. 9 fight at Staples Center was announced last month ... telling Logan to "rip his head off."

KSI admits it's pretty cool to know that Bieber knows who he is, but makes it VERY clear he's gonna prove JB backed the wrong boxer.

Deontay Wilder's giving TMZ Sports his hit list ... knock out Luis "King Kong" Ortiz in devastating fashion, beat up Tyson Fury and then fight the winner of the Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua rematch.

We got Wilder and his fiancee Telli Swift outside Bomane Hair Salon in L.A. ... and first things first, we asked the undefeated heavyweight champ how he expects his November 23 rematch with Ortiz will go down.

"I expect to have a devastating knockout, as always. When it comes to me and the sport of boxing, I'm a master of it. I love to do it. I'm blessed to have what many fighters would love to have in this sport and that's power."

"Like I said, from start to finish. From 1st round to 12 rounds. From 1 second to 36 minutes, I'm a dangerous man."

Ortiz is a 6'3", 240-lb. badass from Cuba with only 1 loss to his name -- and that L was at the hands of the Bronze Bomber -- who beat Luis back in 2018.

Wilder knocked out Ortiz in the 10th round ... but not before he was pushed to the absolute brink of defeat in the 7th round by the Cuban heavyweight.

If Wilder's prophetic in his devastating KO prediction over Ortiz ... he's got a blueprint that'll make him unified heavyweight champion of the world.

That plan ... start with Tyson Fury. Then take on the winner of Ruiz-Joshua II.

Good news for Michael Blackson ... boxing star Adrien Broner doesn't wanna kill you anymore!!

Instead, Broner says he wants to channel that energy into banging random chicks in L.A.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!!!

Okay, some backstory ... back when Broner was gearing up to fight Manny Pacquiao in January, Blackson stepped into the role of "Anger Translator" for Manny and talked some trash to AB.

"I'll kick him in his nuts. That short bitch is going down," Blackson said on Manny's behalf at the time.

Well, the video chalked up more than 3.4 MILLION views on YouTube -- and a few weeks later, Pacquiao beat Broner in the ring.

So, when Broner saw Blackson in person at Nightingale in L.A. on Sunday night, everyone around held their breath and wondered how Broner was gonna handle the situation.

The good news ... NO FIGHTS! JUST JOKES!

Broner clowned Blackson for his outfit and then joked that he was gonna "beat your ass" for making the video.

But, the two hugged it out and laughed it off ... as Broner proceeded to tell the crowd about his plans while he was in L.A.

"Ya'll know when I'm in L.A., I f**k with these bad bitches every night, I'm just trying to f**k hoes."

The ring wasn't the only place for action at Staples Center Saturday night ... 'cause a massive brawl took place in the crowd of the Errol Spence-Shawn Porter fight and TMZ Sports has the video.

We're told the fracas got started after the 4th round when 2 fans started arguing about who was winning the fight.

All hell broke loose after that ... with a co-ed scrap going down and bodies flying everywhere.

The fight lasted for almost a minute.

The angry little bagel guy may have made a big mistake by pulling out of his "celebrity" fight at the last minute ... because the promoter's lawyered up and wants to hit him where it hurts, legally speaking.

Chris Morgan surprised everyone involved with his scheduled boxing event Saturday night in Atlantic City by announcing on Twitter hours before that he'd fooled them all ... and had no intention of showing up to get beat up.

We're told promoted Damon Feldman is PISSED about the ruse, and has retained an attorney to explore legal options to take against Bagel Guy.

Our sources say Morgan didn't give anyone a heads up on backing out, so Feldman and other promoters found out he wasn't coming when everyone else did ... which forced them to scramble to find a replacement.