Fights

Israel Adesanya says he was not the aggressor during a recent confrontation with a man in New Zealand ... claiming the other guy started the whole incident by hurling a racial slur.

A source close to the UFC superstar tells TMZ Sports ... as Izzy was parking his car on a roadway in his home country, the guy came out of nowhere and started calling him the N-word.

Soon after, our source says the man challenged Adesanya to a fight.

11:52 AM PT -- James Rosemond Jr., Ice Spice's manager, says he spoke to Cleotrapa's manager after her posts went viral ... they both agree Cleo handled the situation poorly, especially since she doesn't understand industry politics!!!

Ice Spice has lost yet another BFF, who's claiming to being used as a loop in her BB Belt -- and her enemies just might be teaming up!!!

Rapper Cleotrapa used her Labor Day Weekend to completely unload on Ice Spice ... dropping a 45-minute TikTok video where she accused the "Munch" rapper of being a fake friend ... and claiming she experienced less-than-VIP treatment as the opening act on Ice's Y2K Tour.

According to Cleo, she had to foot the bill for her own hotels and meal per diem ... and was forced to use stinky bathrooms as her dressing rooms.

Distance runner Rebecca Cheptegei -- who just competed in the 2024 Olympics in Paris -- was set on fire by her boyfriend in a brutal attack in Kenya over the weekend, cops say.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom told reporters the incident happened on Sunday ... after the athlete and her partner, Dickson Ndiema, had gotten into an argument over property.

"During the altercation," Kosiom said, "the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her."

Jake Paul isn't worried one bit about Mike Tyson's health status leading up to their fight ... telling TMZ Sports he's so confident the boxing legend will be in the ring come November, there's no backup plan whatsoever.

We caught up with "El Gallo" less than two months 'til their big showdown in Dallas ... and despite Iron Mike's medical emergency that forced them to push the fight from its original July date, he's certain everything's good now.

"I don't have concern," Paul told us. "He's doing great. He's super healthy behind the scenes and feeling great."

Jeremy Stephens is gunning to improve his Bare Knuckle Fighting record to a perfect 2-0 next Saturday ... and the big question is, could a win propel him to a fight with former foe turned BKFC owner, Conor McGregor?!

TMZ Sports caught up with the 38-year-old fighter ahead of his second scrap with the promotion, against 6-2 Bobby Taylor. While Taylor has more experience fighting without gloves, Stephens doesn't anticipate much of a challenge.

"Body bag, not worried about the opponent, man," he said. "Just [going to] put him in a f****** bag. We're here to f****** hurt him, this is the hurt business. He's just an opponent, go in there and do my thing."

Mercedes Moné has plenty of challengers for her AEW Women's championship and her NJPW Strong Women's Championship ... and Megan Thee Stallion could be one of 'em!

Meg could be friend or foe ... but bottom line is the AEW star tells TMZ Sports she hopes to wrestle with or against the hip-hop superstar!

We caught up with the champ-champ stateside fresh off her title defense at AEW All In London -- and ahead of her title defense Friday night at Capital Collision. While Mercedes says she's locked in for her matchup tonight, she also floated the idea of stepping into the ring with the "WAP" singer.

A fight at Disney World's Magic Kingdom Thursday triggered chaos ... after panicked patrons called cops to report what they believed was a shooting.

The video shows the aftermath .... debris littered everywhere, with chairs knocked over and toys and merch scattered -- after a mass of terrified people piled into a shop after a loud popping noise went off in the park.

Watch the video ... the crowd's cleared from the store, but the wreckage they left behind is extensive. Security handled the situation -- walking the crowd slowly out of the park to avoid a mass rush to exits.

A chill day at a Texas pool turned intense real quick ... with things spiraling into violence, shouting the n-word and total mayhem when a man displays a gun during a heated disagreement -- all caught on video.

The confrontation escalates quickly as a guy in a hat squares up to a man who shows a gun, then wraps it up in some clothing -- before a buddy pulls the guy in the cap away to avoid a fight.

But, the gunman keeps chirping and follows them to the edge of the pool -- and things get violent.

A Denver Broncos fan got involved in a violent fight at the team's preseason game Sunday ... and check out footage from the scene -- he took more hits than some of the players on the field.

The tussle went down at some point during the Broncos' 38-12 win over the Arizona Cardinals ... when a guy holding a Coors Light tall boy started chirping with another spectator.

During the verbal spat, the guy with the beer lunged toward his foe ... and shortly after the jab step, he took a nasty punch to the face. A third fan then got in on the action, too ... throwing hands as the dude with the beer fell to the ground.

A hard foul during a women's college soccer game led to punches being thrown ... and the wild fistfight was caught on video!

It happened Sunday at Rudd Field in Massachusetts during the Rutgers and UMass game -- just the third game of the new season.

Rutgers player Gia Girman committed a hard foul on a UMass player around the 55th minute ... before they both fell to the turf. While Girman was trying to get up, UMass' Ashley Lamond came over to retrieve the ball near her feet.

You can't knock Floyd Mayweather's skills in the ring -- as a boss, anyway, because while he was boxing John Gotti III, he fired the referee ... bringing in fresh eyes when he didn't like a call.

While Saturday night's fight in Mexico City was just an exhibition, it was a highly anticipated rematch. Fans weren't exactly loving the action, or lack thereof, in the 2nd round ... when Floyd uncorked a punch that Gotti complained was a rabbit punch -- an illegal blow to the back of the head.

When referee Hector Afu penalized Mayweather for the right hook, the 47-year-old fighter got pissed and started waving him off ... gesturing for Afu to get out of the ring. After a brief exchange of heated words between the boxer and ref, Afu got the hell outta Dodge!

Erislandy Lara's knockout win streak all comes to an end on September 14 ... so says Danny Garcia, who tells TMZ Sports the middleweight boxer will instead catch an L!

We spoke with the 37-3 fighter ahead of his anticipated match against Lara -- "Swift's" first fight in two years -- something he says has been good for him, both mentally and physically.

"I feel better than ever," the 36-year-old told us of the break from the ring. "That was the best thing I did."

A Florida mom is facing a child abuse charge after she allegedly helped her daughter fight another teen at a bus stop ... while onlookers watched and filmed.

In a video making the rounds online ... cops say 34-year-old Kathryn Stephanopoulos is the woman seen getting into the fray as her teen daughter faces off against another girl.

Rather than break up the fight, it appears that Stephanopoulos puts her daughter's opponent into a headlock ... allowing her daughter to throw more punches.

Turns out the customer's not always right ... sometimes they do stuff that's straight-up wrong -- like smacking their server in the face with dinnerware!

New surveillance video from a Nando's restaurant -- a popular fast-food chain in the UK -- captured the viral moment ... showing a man in a hoodie and beanie grabbing a dinner plate and smacking a waitress across the face when she puts the family of 3's dinner on the table.

The server's clearly stunned after taking the dish to the face, then runs off ... while the man, woman and child at the table quickly exit the restaurant.

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul came face-to-face in NYC last weekend, but before the pushing and shoving commenced, "Iron" Mike met with famed artist Super Buddha ... where he delivered a $100K painting to the "REAL Problem Child"!

TMZ Sports has learned Mike's son, Amir, commissioned the piece of artwork (it's worth $100K!) ... which the artist then presented to Tyson at Fanatics Fest at the Javits Center on Sunday.

The image portrays Tyson throwing a vicious right-hand punch in the ring ... with the words "The REAL Problem Child" written in red paint.

Donald Trump's not backing off personal attacks ... remarking the Obamas were "taking shots" at him at the DNC -- so, why should he stick to policy?

The former POTUS took the stage in North Carolina Wednesday afternoon ... name-dropping Barack Hussein Obama -- using his presidential predecessor's full name -- and saying BO hit him with some touchy personal attacks.

ICYMI ... Former Prez Obama took a swing at the Republican presidential nominee during his DNC speech in Chicago Tuesday night -- saying Trump's been whining about his own problems since jumping in the political arena years ago -- pointing out he's more obsessed with crowd sizes than instituting real change.