MMA

Nate Diaz is finally ready to fight Tyron Woodley -- saying, "I see him on TMZ every week, talking about me. I'm like, 'What the f*ck?'"

Diaz spoke with ESPN's Brett Okamoto and Nate was asked when we'd finally see him return to the octagon -- since he hasn't fought since the Conor McGregor rematch in 2016.

That's when he brought up Tyron ...

"I'm getting to the point where I'm sick of not fighting. I'm not getting any younger ... I put that tweet out saying I wanted to fight in May or June, but I didn't say who because I was weighing my options. And now, Woodley is my best option."

Tyron had previously said he was offered the Nate Diaz fight at UFC 219 but Diaz refused to sign the contract. Tyron's been calling Nate out on his show, "The Hollywood Beatdown" -- which drops every week on the TMZ Sports YouTube page.

"I see him on TMZ every week, talking about me. I'm like, 'What the f*ck? If that's what you want to do.' It's not really my weight class, but I'm with it," Diaz said.

"I think it's my title we're fighting for. If he's the one calling me out, whose title are we fighting for? Who's the real champion here?"

Diaz says he's eyeing UFC 226 in Vegas on July 7 -- because he wants a 3-month camp to get ready.

Dana White is building a personal weapons room in his Vegas mansion (seriously) ... so he hit up the guys from "Pawn Stars" to buy a REAL combat-used samurai sword.

The UFC boss had a hard bargaining sesh with Chumlee and Big Hoss over a whole batch of blades -- which the guys claim can be traced back to the families of the samurais who used them.

And in a matchup of equally intimidating bald dudes, Dana and Rick Harrison negotiated for the final sword -- bringing his total bill to $69k.

White made hundreds of millions on the UFC sale -- so we think he'll be alright.

"The Notorious" might be "Minister McGregor" in a matter of years ... 'cause Conor McGregor tells TMZ Sports he's open to a career in politics!

We got Conor chillin' in NYC with his GF, Dee Devlin ... and the UFC mega-star was positively giddy when we asked him about potentially running for office -- something he teased on social media earlier this week.

"Maybe, who knows?! I know they're shakin' in their boots anyway!!" Conor said.

He was clearly in a joking mood, but Conor seemed dead serious is his cryptic message criticizing the Irish government.

There's more ... when our guy tried (emphasis on "tried") asking about a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov ... McGregor immediately brought up Floyd Mayweather, saying he "needs to fight again."

With Floyd teasing an MMA fight all week, ya gotta wonder ... could Floyd vs. Conor 2 actually happen in the UFC?

The Tom Brady of boxing is Roy Jones Jr. -- so says Roy Jones Jr. ... who broke down why he and Tom stand out among the G.O.A.T.s in their respective sports.

"You have to be able to rate people by how they perform under pressure, when things don't go their way," Roy told TMZ Sports.

Case in point -- Brady rallied the Patriots from 25 points down in last year's Super Bowl ... and RJJ told us there was a time in his career where he accomplished something similar.

As for the Brady of MMA ... Roy agrees with Dana White and says it's Anderson Silva -- who he's still gunning to face inside the ring.

RJJ didn't have an official update on that super-fight, but he did hint at making progress with Dana -- who, FYI, has agreed to broadcast his Feb. 8 "retirement fight" vs. Scott Sigmon on UFC Fight Pass.

Tonya Harding K.O.'d the living hell out of another woman during a 2005 boxing match that most people haven't seen ... UNTIL NOW ... and Tyron Woodley is breaking down the video.

The UFC welterweight champ was VERY impressed with Tonya's pro boxing performance against Brittany Drake ... which included a brutal knockout in the opening seconds of Round 2.

The fight was promoted by Damon Feldman -- who provided the incredible footage.

But the question ... with Tonya's raw athletic talent and the workout ethic that was captured in the Oscar nominated movie "I, Tonya" -- does Tyron think Harding could have been a REAL contender with the right team around her??

There's more ... Tyron also breaks down how a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather MMA fight would go ... and gives a strong warning to the guy who socked Flavor Flav in the face.

Chuck Norris fact: he was the star of "Walker, Texas Ranger," and now he claims he's getting screwed out of some serious profits from the shows video-on-demand money.

Chuck's company, Top Kick Productions, is going after CBS and Sony Pictures for allegedly cheating him out of his share of the streaming VOD revenue ... according to new legal docs. The issue revolves around an alleged 23 percent cut of profits CBS agreed to give Chuck in 1993, which he claims he hasn't received from the on-demand revenue.

According to the suit ... CBS and Sony have conspired to promote 'Walker' more through on-demand services and less on TV and DVD to avoid paying him his share, and he hasn't seen a dime of his profits from S-VOD since 2004.

Conor McGregor says Floyd Mayweather needs to stop flirting with an MMA fight and ACTUALLY BOOK IT -- or he'll regret it until the day he dies.

"If he does do it, I know he's flirting with it, I would have respect for him," McGregor told Adam Glyn.

If Floyd is just messing around and won't take a real MMA fight, Conor says, "it will follow him for the rest of his days that he did not do it."

As TMZ Sports previously reported, the head of Showtime Sports says he's talking with Floyd about getting a deal done ... and expects the fight would pay Floyd in the 9-FIGURES.

Floyd Mayweather is heading to Minnesota where he's set to meet with Showtime honcho Stephen Espinoza ... and the two will DEFINITELY be talking about a possible MMA fight.

"It will be a topic of conversation," Stephen told TMZ Sports ... acknowledging Floyd's recent videos from inside an MMA cage are VERY interesting.

"There's a chance ... whatever he puts his mind to, he sort of wills into happening. [Floyd] willed the McGregor fight into happening. So, if he sets his mind to it, it'll happen."

And how much money would it take to lure Floyd back?

"He's not an 8-figure guy anymore. He's a 9-figure guy," says Espinoza, the president of Showtime Sports and event programming.

Bottom line -- if Floyd wants an MMA fight, sounds like Showtime is 100% behind him.

Listen up Gisele -- legendary boxer Bernard Hopkins has some advice on how to deal with those unruly Philly fans when you get to Minnesota ... and it's basically not to be Gisele.

We got Hopkins -- a Philly legend -- out at LAX and asked him how the notoriously outspoken Mrs. Bündchen should handle herself Super Bowl weekend around his Eagles people.

NOTE: Eagles fans are freakin' crazy, having actually assaulted Santa Claus on one occasion.

B-Hop had a very simple idea for Gisele, utilizing a skill she's used to ... playing dress-up.

"You got to camouflage yourself so you won't be noticed. Cause Philly, no matter where we go we make that Philly."

UFC star Eddie Alvarez is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan.

His boss, Dana White, lives and breathes New England Patriots.

So, when we asked Eddie how he's getting along with Dana during Super Bowl week ... he had a 2-fingered response.

It's hilarious.

Of course, they're just kidding around -- but Eddie says they both agreed to suspend the friendship "until Philly wins."

In serious news ... since Eddie famously fought Conor McGregor -- we asked for his take on a possible Conor vs. Floyd MMA match.

Eddie makes it clear he thinks Floyd would get the beating of his life -- and even his 12-year-old son could get Mayweather to tap inside of an octagon.

11:39 AM PT -- Sources connected to Floyd tell us ... Floyd rented out the entire Syndicate MMA gym in Las Vegas on Monday for a private workout session.

As far as the MMA training goes, we've spoken to multiple people and everyone is being VERY tight-lipped about what Floyd was working on inside the gym.

We obviously know he spent some time in the cage -- but no one will say if Floyd was doing actual MMA training or just getting his usual boxing workout in with a change of scenery.

FYI, a ton of legit pro MMA fighters train at Syndicate, including UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin, Jessica-Rose Clark, Mike Pyle and Julian Marquez.

11:28 AM PT -- Conor has seen the video and offered up some thoughts ...

"Hahahaha very good. Keep up the good work my son. Yours sincerely, Senior."

Well, here's Conor McGregor's dream come true ... Floyd Mayweather stepped into an MMA cage in what appears to be another attempt to bait the UFC star into another fight.

Floyd posted the footage on social media Tuesday -- one day after he took a shot at Conor for his #MCM ... which Floyd dubbed, "Mayweather Crushes McGregor."

Both Conor and Floyd made a killing off their superfight in 2017 -- but McGregor says he wants his next fight to be in the octagon.

So, how would that go? Oscar De La Hoya just told us the other day Floyd wouldn't last 10 seconds with The Notorious.

But we'd all probably pay to see it anyway ... and Floyd knows it.

As if us average bros need more reasons to be jealous of Chris Pratt ... here he is lockin' up with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture at Jay Glazer's MMA gym -- and holding his own!

So, why didn't Couture ragdoll the "Guardians" star like an MMA wannabe?

1) Pratt was actually a stud wrestler back in the day, and 2) Pratt says Couture took it "very easy" on him.

Fun fact: this was actually a reunion! Chris says Randy coached him at a college wrestling camp 21 years ago, and he still remembers it like it was yesterday.

"He invited teenage me to come up and demonstrate the three throws we’d learned that day ... it was such an honor."

MMA Fighter Sergio da Silva just pled not guilty to robbing a NYC bank over the summer ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Officials say Silva -- who fought at Bellator 180 -- busted into a CitiBank in Queens on August 24 claiming to have a gun, and threatening to shoot whoever didn't cooperate.

Cops say Silva got away with around $50k in cash.

Silva was arrested, and charged with 2 felony robbery charges ... including 1st degree robbery while displaying a firearm.

SdS's attorney, David Fish, tells us, "We intend to show at trial that he’s not guilty of what he’s alleged to have committed. The allegations are very serious. I think Sergio has a lot of confidence in that the truth will come out at trial."

Silva, who was present in the NYC court, pled not guilty to both charges. He's due back in court in April.

Paige VanZant just got engaged to her MMA fighter boyfriend ... and her last name ain't gonna change all that much.

The UFC figther posted a photo Sunday of her guy, Austin Vanderford, getting on one knee to propose, with the caption ... "I said yes!!!"

The couple's been going out since at least this past summer, when she posted a photo of the two of them together in August with the caption "Mine."

Mine, indeed. Congrats to the future VanZant-derfords!

Daniel Cormier says he's excited to get a crack at Stipe Miocic -- "the greatest heavyweight champion of all time" -- and says the huge payday ain't bad either!

D.C. joined the guys on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs tonight on FS1) and explained why the fight against Stipe at UFC 226 in July is an opportunity he just couldn't pass up.

Cormier says Dana White first approached him as he was leaving the octagon after beating Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 this past weekend ... and used his powers of persuasion (aka his checkbook) to get the deal done!

D.C. -- the reigning light heavyweight champ -- says he conferred with his good friend, Cain Velasquez, before accepting the fight because he didn't want Cain to feel like he was cutting him in line for a shot at the heavyweight belt.

And if Cormier beats Stipe ... D.C. says it would put him in the conversation about the best fighters of all time.

Greg Hardy will take a pro MMA fight in February and take the field for Jim Jones' arena league football team in March.

And that's why Jim says Greg could be the modern-day Bo Jackson -- a "beast" in TWO pro sports.

As we previously reported, Greg is pursuing a career as a pro MMA fighter -- he beat the hell out of his first 2 opponents.

But he also wants to play pro football again -- and with Jim owning the Richmond Roughriders in the American Arena League, the rap star saw a great opportunity to get the ex-NFL star back in the field.

"That man is a BEAST," Jones said on the "TMZ Sports" TV show ... "He's not one of the regular players. He's one of the best in his craft."