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TMZ has learned Mike Tyson has been arrested at LAX airport for battery after a bloody confrontation with a paparazzo outside the United terminal. We're told Tyson punched the pap in the face and there is blood everywhere. We're told Tyson was at a ticket counter at the United Airlines terminal when the incident occurred. The photographer got punched in the face, hit the ground, got up and began walking, leaving a trail of blood. Someone at the scene tells TMZ ... the photographer got very close to Tyson before the boxer struck him. Our guy on the scene says...

The reminder that yet another anniversary is here had George Foreman thinking that maybe it's time to visit an old friend. They once had their differences, once came to blows. Time, though, is a great healer. "Maybe I should go and see him," Foreman said. "He's like a brother. We're that close." They weren't 35 years ago, on an early morning in Africa when all Foreman had in mind was dealing some serious hurt to Muhammad Ali. He had been in Zaire way too long as it was, and the big, brooding heavyweight champion was in no mood to take...

Jack Johnson remains unpardoned as the president is accused of cowardice on race and crime after shunning judicial powers ~snip~ Obama is now in his 10th month as president and has not granted a single clemency or commutation of sentence. “It is a sad and telling commentary on the emptiness of the rhetoric of hope and change [that] President Obama was not able to find even a single case in the massive federal criminal justice system meriting some kind of clemency relief during his first 100 days in office,” said Berman. “I’m very disappointed.” The omission may partly be due...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain on Friday pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman. McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon. "Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration," they wrote...

THE burqa boxers are coming. Young women are training in Afghanistan to fight in Islamic dress at the 2012 London Olympics. Wearing hijabs beneath their headguards and clothes that cover their bodies, 25 female pugilists are preparing for their bouts in gruelling training sessions at Kabul’s Olympic stadium, once the scene of public executions by the Taliban. The team, whose ages range from 14-25, were recruited by their coach, Fadir Sharify, a former professional boxer. He persuaded the girls’ families that it would not be inappropriate for them to take to the ring. The 2012 summer Games will be the...

Vitali Klitschko was doing most of his talking in English, which made sense because, after all, he had just starred in prime time on American television. Besides, he didn't need a whole lot of words to describe what he had just done to poor Cris Arreola. Talking about the fight was easy enough in any of the four languages Klitschko speaks. The actual fight seemed pretty easy, too, at least to people watching Saturday night at Staples Center. They came to watch Arreola fight like a warrior and win a piece of the heavyweight title. They ended up seeing Klitschko...

During “Climate Week” at the United Nations, where 100 heads of state met to discuss four-time heavy weight boxing champion of the world, Evander Holyfield announced on Friday, Sept. 25, that he plans to take on one of his toughest opponents yet; Global Warming. Holyfield, “The Lean Green Fighting Machine”, is fighting for Planet Earth. The champ has been motivated to look for solutions for the environment and intends to build a 40 acre solar energy farm on his estate in Georgia. The solar farm will be built in collaboration with Global-NES-Georgia, Inc. an organization that teams up with Green...

Anyone else watching this? Who would've thought Mayweather would last twelve rounds???

Floyd Mayweather, getting ready for his first bout in 21 months, has apparently lost none of the chip on his shoulder that made him one of boxing's most intriguing figures. In an otherwise calm meeting with reporters on Tuesday, including ESPN.com's Kieran Mulvaney, Mayweather calmly and matter-of-factly lashed out at what he thinks is unfair treatment from the media and the public, in part because of his race.

DUBLIN -- Muhammad Ali made a sentimental journey Tuesday to discover his Irish roots, and met distant relatives during celebrations at the local town hall and a nearby castle. Thousands lined the streets of Ennis, western Ireland, to cheer his motorcade as the three-time heavyweight champion visited the home of his great-grandfather Abe Grady. Fans adorned streets with red, white and blue bunting and flags, while shop windows competed to display the most impressive posters honoring Ali -- including one tongue-in-cheek portrait of him appearing ready to knock out an unpopular Irish politician. Ali, who is 67 and battling Parkinson's...

TRIVANDRUM, India — The girls punched hard. From across India they came to this big, steamy government-run gym. Before entering the boxing ring, they bowed their heads to the floor, as though entering a temple. A sweet-shop owner’s daughter let loose a right hook. A construction worker’s daughter leaned against the rope, streams of sweat dripping from her face. Bouncing, ducking, like a grasshopper on speed, was a short girl from Calcutta with close-set eyes; she had forsaken her sister’s wedding for a chance to come here and fight. The thud of glove against glove echoed against the cavernous walls....

Las Vegas police searched the home of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. today after the boxer's car was spotted at the scene of a shooting that occurred last night. The shooting happened at the Crystal Palace Skating Center sometime yesterday evening -- our law enforcement sources say no one was hurt or injured. We're told cops don't know if Mayweather was actually at the scene at the time of the incident.

ATLANTA (AP) - Vernon Forrest, a former two-division champion who gained stardom when he became the first boxer to defeat Shane Mosley, was shot to death in what police are calling an attempted robbery. Atlanta police Sgt. Lisa Keyes said in an e-mail Sunday that the 38-year-old Forrest was shot several times in the back late Saturday night on a street just southwest of downtown. Keyes said there were no suspects. Vernon Forrest was a former WBC super welterweight champion. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Fulton County medical examiner Michele Stauffenberg confirmed the case was a homicide and that the...

ATLANTA (AP)—Former boxing champion Vernon Forrest was shot and killed during an apparent robbery in Atlanta, police said Sunday. Atlanta Police Sgt. Lisa Keyes said in an e-mail Sunday that Forrest may have been robbed and was shot “multiple times in the back” Saturday night in Atlanta.

SAO PAULO -- Former boxing champion Arturo Gatti, one of the most exciting fighters of his generation, was found dead in a hotel room in the posh seaside resort of Porto de Galihnas early Saturday. Police investigator Edilson Alves told The Associated Press that the body of the former junior welterweight champ was discovered in his hotel room at the tourist resort, where Gatti had arrived on Friday with his Brazilian wife Amanda and 1-year-old son. Alves said police were investigating and it was unclear how the 37-year-old Canadian died. Foul play is suspected in the death, the CBC reported.

Legendary former world champion Arturo Gatti, 37, has reportedly been found dead inside a beachside flat he was renting at the Hotel Dorisol of Porto de Galinhas, Pernambuco, Brazil . . .

In a lopsided fight that even Don King would have had trouble promoting, a burglar in Oxford, England, got more than he bargained for when he broke into the home of Frank Corti, a 72-year-old former junior boxing champion.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Former boxing champion Alexis Arguello, considered one of the best lightweights to step in the ring, has been found dead. Presidential spokeswoman Rosario Murillo confirmed Arguello's death early Wednesday.

As you wait on the line to interview Don King by telephone, you get to hear Ray Charles singing “God Bless America.” You just know King is sitting in his Florida headquarters catching his breath as you wait. King is helping promote Saturday’s fight at the Radisson Hotel in Columbia between Luis “The Peoples Champ” Collazo and David “The Russian Nightmare” Gogichaishvili. Suddenly, he is on the line and ready to talk. So, Don, why is the United States such a great country? “This country is evolving,” he begins. “The people are governed by the consent of the govern. This...

PHOENIX - The 4-year-old daughter of legendary boxer Mike Tyson is in critical condition after a family member found her hanging from a cord. Monday around 10:30 a.m., Phoenix Police and paramedics were called out to Tyson's home in the 6100 block of 10th Ave in Phoenix on reports of an unresponsive child. CPR was administered and the girl was taken to St. Joe's Hospital. She's on life support and in extremely critical condition. According to police, the victim's 7-year-old brother discovered the child in distress, and alerted their mother. She found the girl with a cable around her neck,...

Muhammad Ali, who floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee inside the boxing ring and became a political and humanitarian force outside of it, will receive an honorary doctorate from Muhlenberg College. The former three-time heavyweight champion and Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the 20th Century will be honored at the college's 161st commencement May 17 with two others -- Galway Kinnell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and Kathleen A. McGinty, former state environmental secretary for Gov. Ed Rendell. First known as Cassius Clay, he won the boxing Olympic gold medal in 1960 and became heavyweight champion in 1964. The...

One of the more unusual stories doing the rounds in recent weeks was the tale that Manny Pacquiao took to boxing after his his father ate his dog. The tale goes that the 14-year-old Pacquiao ran away from home in General Santos City when his father killed and ate his pet, ending up in a Manila boxing gym. But Pacquiao, 30, says the story is not true, although the poor pooch did meet an untimely end. "I had a little dog, it got killed by a friend of my dad and then he ate it," Pacquiao said. "I was 12...

Ricky Hatton never saw it coming. The Hitman had already become the hit man early in Saturday's junior welterweight title defense against Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas, twice getting knocked down in the first three minutes. But the coup de grace came late in the second round when an unseen left-handed missile caught Hatton's jaw and sent him crashing to the canvas, where he spent the next three minutes motionless while the Filipino diaspora exulted and thousands of traveling Britons wept in their pints. It was a clinical finish, a hook devastating in its force, speed and precision, a shocking...

LOS ANGELES – Oscar De La Hoya stopped battling himself Tuesday, deciding after much internal turmoil to retire and end a career in which he won 10 world titles in six divisions and became boxing's most popular fighter. He made his announcement at an outdoor plaza across the street from Staples Center, where a 7-foot bronze statue of the 36-year-old Golden Boy stands. "I've come to the conclusion that it's over," the East Los Angeles native said before hundreds of fans, including comedian George Lopez and Oscar-nominated actor and former fighter Mickey Rourke. "It's over inside the ring for me."

NEW YORK — Muhammad Ali described his third and final fight with Joe Frazier as "death, closest thing to dyin' that I know of." Frazier recalls their brutal matchup outside Manila as something much less grandiose. "We just did our job," he said. The two great heavyweights always have been the ying and yang of boxing. Why should things change nearly 35 years later?

Jack Johnson, the first African-American to become world heavyweight boxing champion, overcame racism and poverty to slug his way to the top. Efforts to clear his name of a bogus conviction for transporting a white woman across state lines for immoral purposes, however, have not been as successful. Today is the 131st anniversary of Johnson's birth in Galveston, and it comes as renewed efforts are under way in Congress to get a presidential pardon for the boxer who died 68 years ago. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., plan to introduce resolutions before Congress on Wednesday calling...

For a recovering drug user, the boxing ring offers a place where there's little to fearMark Allen is sitting in a Starbucks that is a stoner's throw from where he used to score crack cocaine. The incongruity of the picture isn't shy, the way it stares you in the face. The Near West Side is in the heat of some fervent gentrification, but not far away on Madison Street, the poverty of the area around the United Center still throbs. And here in the American monument to caffeinated uniformity sits a 29-year-old boxer with an economics degree from the University...

PHOTOS! Here are pictures and a video trailer of Mike Tyson’s weight gain. While not fat, Mike Tyson’s weight gain in the documentary film Tyson is featured ...

A model-turned-boxer has been banned from fighting - because of her breast implants. Sarah Blewden, 25, has been told that repeated blows to her false breasts could knock them out of shape and damage her breast tissue. Now boxing chiefs won't allow her to compete - dealing a knock-out blow for her hopes of competing in the Olympics in the future. The pretty pugilist had breast enlargement surgery in 2003 to take her chest size up to a 32C from a 32B and to boost her modeling career

America has lost a true friend, Sweden a true champion and my home city, Gothenburg, mourns a great son. Although the quote below is fiction (as far as I know), I think this scene from a certain tv-series depicting the flower power-generation (by Peter Birro, Swedish author/playwriter) says a lot about the spirit of Ingemar Johansson and - not the least - his feelings towards America: Anno domino 1968. Mr Johansson, sitting in a café, notices a bunch of hippie protesters shouting anti-American slogans in the street. Johansson walks out of the café, halting the group with the question: "-...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Ingemar Johansson, the Swede who stunned the boxing world by knocking out Floyd Patterson to win the heavyweight title in 1959, has died, a longtime friend said Saturday. He was 76.

PONCE, Puerto Rico — Jose "Cheguí" Torres, a former light heavyweight world champion and Olympic silver medalist, died Monday, his widow said. He was 72.

I mentioned the Hagler Hearns fight yesterday . So whats the best round ever? Ive narrowed it down to three. You be the judge or give me another round.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced several new bills Tuesday as Congress starts its 2009 work: • Lifting restrictions on long-haul flights at Washington Reagan National Airport and New York LaGuardia Airport. McCain has long sought to lift regulations that restrict West Coast flights out of those two airports. • Expanding federal powers to investigate knock-off Native American crafts and art. That bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would increase federal penalties for fraudulent sales of the counterfeit items. • Establishing a national board to regulate boxing in the U.S. McCain has sought previously to impose federal oversight...

For most politicians, boxing is a metaphor. But it never has been for John McCain. Hillary Clinton waved Kelly Pavlik’s gloves during a primary stop in Youngstown, Ohio. It was symbol, a photo op, for a candidate who wanted to be seen as a fighter. But gloves are no symbol for McCain. McCain has worn them. The former Naval Academy boxer says he intends to take up an old fight as he resumes the daily rounds of work as Arizona’s senior senator after the Republican nominee lost in a bruising campaign to Democrat Barack Obama for president.

LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao fought a lot bigger than he looked. Oscar De La Hoya simply looked old. Pacquiao dominated his bigger and more famous opponent from the opening bell Saturday night...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSTAMIYAH, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2008 – A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier serving in southern Baghdad with the 10th Mountain Division’s 94th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, uses his off-duty time to hone his boxing skills. Army Spc. Chad Reed, right, spars with Sempa Wilson at Forward Operating Base Rustamiyah, Iraq, Nov. 19, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jeremy Todd  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Spc. Chad Reed has become somewhat of a superstar here, especially since he recently defeated a Golden Gloves boxer on nearby Forward Operating Base Loyalty. “When I’m...

Evander Holyfield is set to return to boxing at the age of 46 with a fight against Russia's Nikolai Valuev for the WBA heavyweight crown. The fight will take place in Zurich on December 20th and will be Holyfield's first fight since his defeat to Sultan Ibragimov a year ago. The 35-year-old Valuev, who stands at seven-foot tall and weights over 330lbs, admitted he is taking the threat of Holyfield very seriously. "Holyfield was a great champion," said Valuev. "He is very experienced, but I have no doubts that I will beat him. I take this fight very seriously." "Holyfield...

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Rodel Obreja of Romania, deputy technical delegate of the Beijing Olymic boxing competition, has been suspended from his post over attempts of manipulating the competition, according to an official communication by the International Boxing Association (AIBA) on Friday. The communication was issued hours after Obreja accused that the refereeing selection and judging system was manipulated. However, AIBA said they had obtained information regarding a possible attempt, "both within the organization and within the competition officials", to manipulate the competition two months prior to the start of the Olympic boxing events. "As additional information regarding possible...

BEIJING, Aug. 15 -- In a hallway of the Beijing Workers Gymnasium on Friday night U.S. boxer Raynell Williams buried his head in a towel, leaned against a door and wondered just what it was he had done so wrong on an evening when he appeared to do everything right. A few feet away, his coach Dan Campbell, gnawed on a toothpick and glared. "I just called back to the people in the tape room and everybody said it was (expletive)," Campbell said after Williams lost a second round fight he looked to have decisively won against France's Khedafi Djelkhir....

Mando Ramos, a two-time lightweight world champion, died Sunday morning at the age of 59 at his home in San Pedro.

A RUSSIAN man has been crowned world champion in the novelty sport of chess boxing, a game that requires equal skill at moving pawns and throwing punches. Mathematics student Nikolai Sazhin, 19, competing under the name "The President'' knocked out a 37-year-old German policeman Frank Stoldt, who served as a peacekeeper in Kosovo until recently. The loser said he was simply too punch-drunk to fend off checkmate. "I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That's why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for...

HOUSTON -- A federal magistrate has released a convicted mail thief to participate in a nationally televised professional boxing event, Local 2 Investigates reported Wednesday. Donald Albert Mouton, 30, is part of an arrest sweep involving stolen mail from Continental Airlines jets at Bush Intercontinental Airport. He and another man have been arrested so far, with federal agents planning more arrests next week. "I'm not a bad person. I'm one of the finest gentlemen walking around," said Mouton while training Wednesday afternoon at the Ultimate Warriors Boxing Club on Mesa Drive in northeast Houston. After performing sit-ups and other exercises,...

Former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield appears to be having financial problems, WGCL-TV in Atlanta reports. A legal notice that appeared in a local newspaper showed his Fayette County estate is under foreclosure. The home worth an estimated $10 million is set to be auctioned by a bank on July 1. The mother of one of Holyfield's nine children said he has missed two child-support payments. Toi Irvin, who lives in Clayton County, filed a petition for contempt in Fayette County Superior Court on behalf of her 10-year-old son. Irvin said she was told by Holyfield's representatives not to expect...

The fighters for Saturday’s CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night Fights weighed in on Friday outside the Prudential Center, where the event will take place, in Newark, N.J. Despite most fighters making weight, one the most notable did not. Gina Carano, contracted to fight Kaitlin Young at a weight of 140 pounds, weighed in at 144.5 pounds. Since the bout is not a title fight, it will be allowed to take place, but Carano will have to forfeit 12.5 percent of her purse to Young as a penalty. Young weighed in at 140.5 pounds, which is allowable as there is a one-pound...

CNN classifies Campbell Brown as an "anchor," but that apparently doesn't prevent her from riding to Barack Obama's defense on a high-profile issue. On this evening's Election Center, Brown seconded a guest's assertion that the controversy surrounding Barack Obama's erstwhile refusal to wear a flag pin was "nonsensical" and "ridiculous." The topic was the matter of Obama's patriotism as a campaign issue. CNN contributor and ardent Obama supporter Roland Martin [he who gushed over Rev. Wright's address to the Detroit NAACP] addressed the flag pin flap [note: remarks taken from transcript.] ROLAND MARTIN: First of all, John McCain doesn't wear...

"Here is a cat that really loves boxing! He sits on the couch watching a boxing match and really gets into it!" The boxing kitty-cat

Anyone watching this spectacle right now (on HBO)? The participants: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Steve Forbes (no, that that Steve Forbes). Venue: Carson, CA. Both fighters are and have have been American citizens, yet the Mexican national anthem was played before the bout. That would be expected if one of the fighters were a Mexican citizen or if the bout were held in Mexico, but neither is the case in this instance. I've seen some nutty things at So. Cal sporting events. ...like the American national anthem booed at a U.S.A. vs. Mexico soccer match at the Coliseum in...

North American Boxing Council Sues Mark Cuban's HDNet For Theft Eight count suit alleges HDNet's unifying mixed martial arts organization, "HDNet Fights" is the work product of the NABC. HDNet Fights, the unifying mixed martial arts organization televised on Mark Cuban's HDNet cable channel, should cease operations immediately because it was born out of a breach of trust, misappropriation of trade secrets, and other harmful actions on the part of HDNet, the North American Boxing Council (NABC) said in a lawsuit filed March 17th in the Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana. The eight count suit seeks to restore the...

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - Legislators are seeking to ban mixed martial arts competitions—sometimes called "cage fighting"—among children in Missouri, which appears to be the only state where youth matches are allowed. The sport is a blend of martial arts styles made popular by cable television's "Ultimate Fighting Championship." Republican state Reps. Bryan Stevenson of Webb City and Steve Hunter of Joplin introduced the measure Monday, days after an Associated Press report about the practice. "I think it borders on child abuse. I just don't think it's appropriate behavior at all," said Stevenson, adding that he has never attended a youth...