TMZ Sports - Page 50

WARNING -- DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME ... unless you know Harvey Levin.

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya paid a visit to the TMZ office on Thursday ... and naturally, we had to put his world-class skills to the test.

The Last Stylebender was up for the challenge ... saying he'd love to knock a cup off someone's head with a round kick -- and none other than our fearless leader, Harv, volunteered to get a front-row seat for the demo.

Worth noting -- Adesanya is the best of the best ... so we figured HL was never in any real danger. Harvey was not as convinced, which is obvious in the video.

The time came for Adesanya to show off his kick ... and thankfully, he knocked the cup off cleanly!!

The whole office cheered, while Harvey breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Now, a source -- whose name rhymes with Shmarvey -- swears Izzy's foot made contact with Harvey's head, but video doesn't support that at all. IF anything at all, HL felt the cup zooming off his head ... which just shows the kinda impact these kicks can make.

NASCAR legend Tony Stewart is selling his massive Indiana ranch -- and once you see how ridiculously awesome this house is, you'll see why it's got a $30 million price tag!

This 20,000 square foot estate sits on 415 acres in Columbus, IN -- less than an hour from Indianapolis -- and is built out of luxurious lodgepole pine.

The place is awesome. It has a two-story waterfall, a trout stream and an 8,700-gallon aquarium right in the entry.

There's also 6 bedrooms, 11 baths (8 full, 3 half), a gigantic kitchen with fancy appliances, a 4-car garage (of course) and a guesthouse.

For entertainment, you've got lots to pick from ... including a 2-lane bowling alley, full golf simulator, an onyx bar and a game room that looks like a Vegas casino.

You can also dive in the 9-acre stocked lake in the backyard or if you're a fan of hunting, this land is a licensed hunting preserve that has a bunch of elk, deer and more.

The two-story mansion, that was built in 2011, was just listed with Carrie Holle of Compass Indiana and can be yours for $30 million.

Why would Stewart sell such a beautiful place? We're told it's because the 3x NASCAR Cup Series winner is never home and always on the road.

It's been over a week since the NBA All-Star Game ... but Macy Gray is STILL wondering if LeBron James was laughing at her anthem performance.

The singer took to TikTok on Wednesday to try to get clarity on the situation, asking her 100,000 followers if they think LBJ was really cracking up over her rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner."

"Ya'll really think LeBron was laughing at me?" she asked. "I heard he wasn't but maybe."

If you missed it ... in the buildup to the Association's All-Star contest, Gray took center court and belted out a unique version of the national anthem.

Some found it fun, some found quirky -- and many believed LeBron found it straight-up funny, as the King was snickering throughout the song.

People, though, speculated LeBron was giggling about something else -- perhaps Steph Curry related. LeBron never clarified, leaving everyone wondering, what was so funny??

Seems Gray is still trying to get to the bottom of it ... but at this point, it probably ain't happening. So, what do you think, yes or no?!

Sad news in the golf world ... PGA Tour star Jason Day's mom has passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer.

The 34-year-old golfer made the heartbreaking announcement on his Instagram page Thursday ... saying his mom, Adenil "Dening" Day, died on Wednesday night five years after she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"We are heart broken but incredibly grateful for the gift we had in her living with us for the last almost two years full time," Day said. "She fought so hard until the very last breath."

According to the PGA Tour, Dening passed away peacefully with Jason and other family members by her side.

"I am forever indebted to her for the sacrifices she made for me to be successful, and for the person she helped me to become," said Day, who pulled out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this week to be with his mother in her final days.

"We will miss her so much."

Tragically, Dening is not the first parent Jason has lost to cancer ... his father passed away from stomach cancer when Jason was just 12 years old.

Suck at golf? Here's something that'll make you feel a whole lot better about your game ...

Jon Rahm -- the world's best golfer -- missed a 10-inch putt during the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Thursday ... and it was truly unbelievable.

Rahm went to nonchalantly tap in his par putt at the par 3 7th hole at the famous v ... when disaster totally struck.

Rahm didn't hit the ball hard enough ... and according to PGA Tour's shot tracker -- it actually went just 1 inch!!!

"He just went for the tap-in, and I don't know what happened exactly," one of the stunned announcers said on the broadcast. "It didn't move but a few inches."

To everyone's surprise, Rahm somehow kept his cool ... wiping off the face of his putter before hammering the ball into the cup for a bogey.

Rahm's still out on the course and he was able to rebound on the next hole to card a par ... but the extra stroke took him way down the leaderboard.

Ronda Rousey is throwing her support behind Cain Velasquez following his attempted murder arrest earlier this week ... saying if the allegations are true, she "would have done the same thing" as the UFC legend.

The WWE star explained her stance on her social media page Thursday ... saying she doesn't blame Velasquez one bit for allegedly going after the man who was accused of molesting one of his close relatives.

In fact, Rousey -- whose husband Travis Browne lost to Velasquez at UFC 200 in 2016 -- said if she had been in Cain's position ... she might have done "worse."

As we previously reported, Velasquez was arrested on Monday in San Jose, CA. after he allegedly tried to kill Harry Goularte, a 43-year-old man who law enforcement says inappropriately touched one of Velasquez's family members at a child care facility days earlier.

In court documents, officials say Velasquez chased Goularte and his family members in his black Ford F250 ... rammed them, and then shot at them repeatedly, ultimately striking Goularte's stepdad in the arm.

Velasquez was eventually hit with 10 criminal charges, including felony attempted murder, over the incident ... and if he's convicted on all counts, he's facing decades behind bars.

Jayson Tatum has played with a ton of great players so far in his career, but his best teammate might very well be his son, Deuce ... who wished his NBA Star dad a happy birthday by hitting up some of his favorite childhood spots!!

The Celtics forward is celebrating his 24th birthday on Thursday ... and posted a video on social media of his adorable son showing him some love on the special day.

The video starts out with 4-year-old Deuce in a Cardinals jersey ... which, of course, is only fitting since Tatum is a native of St. Louis, Missouri.

Deuce is seen jumping excitedly in front of a place where JT has childhood ties to ... before the video transitions to Tatum's favorite pizza spot.

Deuce then hit up Tatum's old high school, Chaminade College Preparatory School ... where Jayson averaged 26.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game his sophomore season.

After leaving his dad's old stomping grounds, Deuce made his way to the gym at the WOHL community center in St. Louis ... while wearing his pop's Celtics jersey.

The video's precious ... with Deuce signing off by saying, "This is St. Louis," as Nelly's hit song "St. Louie" plays in the background.

Tatum will have his hands full when he plays Ja Morant and the Grizzlies later on his birthday ... but don't be surprised if he balls out and has a career game in honor of the occasion.

It appears the NFL just declared the pandemic over ... 'cause the league and the players association have put an end to all of their COVID-19 protocols, including testing, mask-wearing, and contact tracing.

The NFL and NFLPA sent a joint memorandum to all 32 organizations announcing the decision ... citing "encouraging trends regarding the prevalence of COVID-19."

The league and PA say they will no longer conduct mandatory tests, regardless of whether a player is vaccinated or not.

They've also done away with the high-tech tracker -- called a Kinexon device -- that players were required to wear at all times, which was used to alert officials of any close contacts with infected individuals.

There's more. Teams can now take down all the signage instructing players to socially distance, wear masks, etc.

That's because masks ... they're no longer required, either.

Now, it's worth noting that state and local laws supersede the NFL's rules ... so, if you live in a city or state that still requires the masks, the new guidelines don't necessarily apply.

When it came to the virus, the NFL was very strict. There were several high-profile clashes between the league and a few top players including Aaron Rodgers, Cole Beasley, and Antonio Brown.

Rodgers was fined for allegedly misleading team and league officials on his vax status. Beasley was hit with $100K+ in fines for multiple COVID-19 protocol violations. Brown was suspended 3 games for providing a fake vaccination card.

Ukrainian tennis star Sergiy Stakhovsky is back in Ukraine, voluntarily returning to defend his homeland against Russia -- and his second mission is making his wife understand why he's chosen to do the first.

Sergiy was in Kyiv Thursday when he joined us on "TMZ Live" ... and explained the extremely difficult decision he's made to leave his wife and 3 young kids -- ages 3, 6 and 7 -- in Hungary while he takes up arms in Ukraine.

As you can imagine, telling his wife he was leaving safety to go to the middle of his war-torn country was not easy ... and you can hear the agony in Sergiy's voice.

Sergiy says his wife was mad when he told her he was going back to Ukraine ... but he understood there would be no way she could understand.

He says things were initially extremely icy between them, but they are communicating again, and now he's just hoping he'll be able to ask for her forgiveness one day ... in person.

You wanna talk about being torn in separate directions -- Sergiy tells us he's not sure he made the right choice in joining Ukraine's reserve army, but at the same time he says staying home with his family in Hungary wouldn't be the right choice either.

This is just a few powerful moments of our conversation with him -- but Sergiy also told us how he and other Ukrainians are feeling about the possibility of a ceasefire, and about Vladimir Putin.

Jack Harlow's acting career is poppin' -- the rap star just reportedly landed the lead role in the "White Men Can't Jump" reboot ... after his FIRST EVER audition.

The "Nail Tech" MC will play Billy Hoyle, which was Woody Harrelson's role in the original film back in 1992, according to Deadline.

23-year-old Harlow -- who has zero acting experience -- apparently wowed producers from the jump ... helping pave the way to his first on-screen gig.

Of course, the OG flick starred Harrelson and Wesley Snipes -- which followed the story of two on-court rivals who team up to start hustling people on the court.

Harlow is known to be a pretty solid hooper in real life -- he's been in numerous celebrity basketball games over the years ... most recently, the NBA Celeb Game during All-Star Weekend in Cleveland, where he showed off his range with multiple 4-point plays.

The reboot is produced by Kenya Barris and his Khalabo Ink Society banner ... and executive produced by NBA star Blake Griffin, NFLer Ryan Kalil and Noah Weinstein of Mortal Media.

Huge victory for Novak Djokovic -- the Serbian tennis star is now expected to play in the French Open after French officials announced they will lift the country's vaccine passport mandate this month.

France had initially barred the unvaccinated from participating in events like the major tennis tournament ... citing health and safety reasons.

Of course, that rule was slated to preclude Djokovic from playing in May's tournament ... because, well, the guy is famously not vaccinated and said earlier this year he would absolutely miss any event that had a mandate in place.

But, officials announced Thursday the order is coming to an end on March 14 ... and with the tourney set to begin on May 22, Djokovic is now slated to, once again, be a participant.

It's a big deal for Djokovic ... because after he was barred from the Australian Open in January, Rafael Nadal ended up winning the tournament and overtaking Djokovic for most career majors with 21 total.

It's still unclear if 34-year-old Novak will be able to play in any other majors following the French Open -- mandates are still in place all over the globe.

Matthew Stafford's wife, Kelly, is seriously regretting going under the knife to get a new set of boobs years ago ... saying her experience with the procedure was straight-up horrific.

Kelly detailed her journey on her "The Morning After" podcast this week ... saying she always wanted to have bigger knockers, so she saved up for years to make it happen.

"I just turned 19," Stafford said. "So I went and got a boob job."

Kelly -- who started dating the L.A. Rams QB at the Univ. of Georgia -- said her man was opposed to the move at the time, but she went ahead and did it anyway.

"He was like, 'Do not do it. Please don't do it,' and I was like, 'Listen, love you, but I've wanted this for a long time and this is about me, not about you.'"

Maybe Kelly should have taken his advice ... 'cause she said it ended up being the worst boob job ever.

"It was two balloons on my chest," Kelly said. "It was so, so bad."

Kelly said the botched job was so obvious, Detroit reporters caught on and believed that her then-Lions QB boyfriend must have paid for her implants -- which pissed her off.

"I am independent. I don't need him to buy my boobs. I bought these boobs."

Kelly added, "If he would've bought 'em, they would've been far better!"

Thankfully, the 32-year-old mother of 4 was able to get them "deflated" a year later, and then eventually redone altogether just a couple years ago.

"They were so bad that it was very evident ... like that looks real bad."

Kelly -- who married Matthew in 2015 -- says even though he was against it, he was very supportive and "sweet" throughout her struggles.

Former Ohio State star Shane Olivea -- who played for the San Diego Chargers after his time in Columbus -- died on Wednesday, his good friend and ex-Buckeye teammate Bobby Carpenter announced.

He was just 40 years old.

Carpenter did not reveal a cause of the death ... but said the former offensive lineman passed away at night.

"I'll never forget the kindness he showed to a young freshman who was clueless and didn't know anything about anything," Carpenter said in a statement on Twitter. "#RIPShane #Thankyou."

Olivea played for the Buckeyes from 2000 to 2003, and won a national championship with the team in 2002. He went on to get picked by the Chargers in the seventh round of the '04 draft, and started 57 games for the Bolts from 2004 to 2007.

Sadly, an addiction to pain killers ended up derailing his career following the '07 season. Olivea had said to The Columbus Dispatch in 2017 that his addiction during his playing days was so bad, doctors told him he was fortunate to be alive.

Olivea went to rehab and eventually got better, and he later said he had aspirations of coaching football and mentoring kids.

"Very sad to hear the news of my former teammate Shane Olivea," ex-NFL O-lineman Roman Oben said on Twitter after learning of the news. "Praying for his family today."

"In 2022 I'm gonna shock the world. July, International Fight Week, I'm gonna fight Leon Edwards. God willing I get through Leon Edwards, September, Mexican Independence Day, I will stop Canelo Alvarez."

That's UFC superstar Kamaru Usman -- the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport -- manifesting a super fight with the world's top boxer ... a fight the Nigerian Nightmare tells us could earn him and Canelo over $100,000,000 EACH!

34-year-old Usman hasn't lost in almost 9 years ... and has beat the very best fighters in the world in the Octagon. We're talking Colby Covington (twice), Jorge Masvidal (twice), Gilbert Burns, and Tyron Woodley, just to name a few.

Over the last two years, Usman has made it clear he wants to box Canelo ... pitting the two top P4P fighters against each other.

Until yesterday, 31-year-old Alvarez was dismissive of a fight with Usman, previously telling us he wasn't interested in the fight 'cause he didn't believe it'd add to his resume.

But, seems Canelo had a change of heart on Wednesday ... when Ariel Helwani asked boxing Kamaru, Alvarez answered, "Payday. He wants a payday, I know. But maybe, maybe, why not? You never say no, right?"

Speaking of paydays -- we asked Kamaru how much money the fighters could make ... and he believes it'd be one of the highest-paying combat events ever.

"We talking 9 figures, for sure," Usman says.

But, Usman isn't calling his shot just to inflate his bank account ... he truly believes he can and will beat Alvarez, despite knowing most people will say he can't cross sports and beat the best.

Usman doesn't care.

"Absolutely I see myself winning the fight," Kamaru says, later adding ..."Everything can't be done until it's done."

Canelo has a fight on May 7 against Dmitry Bivol. There's also reportedly talk about a third fight with Gennady Golovkin that would take place in September.

The GGG fight would obviously throw a wrench in Usman's plan to hold the boxing match in September ... but they'd simply have to pick a later date.

WWE is taking a stand against Russia -- Vince McMahon's organization just announced it is cutting all ties to the country amid the invasion of Ukraine.

WWE made the move official on Thursday ... saying its programs will no longer be shown on Russian broadcast partner Match as a response to Vladimir Putin's decision to attack Ukraine.

"WWE has terminated its partnership with Russian broadcaster Match and shut down WWE Network in Russia effective immediately," the company said in a statement.

The decision to end the business relationship with Match is a major loss for the Russian company ... as it will no longer have access to any of the promotion's weekly programming -- including Raw, Smackdown, NXT shows, and WWE's on-demand library.

The move also means WrestleMania 38 -- the Super Bowl of wrestling -- will not air in Russia ... which is set to take place in Dallas this year on April 2 and 3.

WWE has a huge following in Russia ... but it's clear Vince wanted to send a message.

The New Orleans Pelicans showed their support for Ukraine on Wednesday -- donning all yellow socks during their game against the Sacramento Kings to raise awareness.

Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum and the rest of the squad showed up to their homecourt in New Orleans with the socks on ... and said afterward it was all in an effort to show solidarity with the country as it's in the throes of war with Russia.

"It's tough to talk about that topic," said Jonas Valanciunas, who is from Lithuania. "It's a big mess. We're just trying to bring more attention."

"The enemy still out there," JV added. "Innocent people still dying. The whole world talking about sanctions, support, prayers, but something else has to be done because the war is still going on."

He continued, "Attention has to be brought to Ukraine people."

The socks ended up being good luck for the Pelicans ... as they won the game 125 to 95. Valanciunas scored 17 in the contest and added 14 rebounds.