Legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather is being sued by a California man after he allegedly directed a bodyguard to assault the man during an incident nearly two years ago.
According to a report from TMZ, Mayweather is being sued by Eduardo Andres Torres Martinez of Los Angeles over an alleged incident that took place at the Yard House at L.A. Live located near Crypto.com Arena — formerly known as The Staples Center — on February 10, 2022.
The lawsuit claims that Martinez was filming ‘Money’ and his crew with a cellphone camera when the pugilist entered the restaurant. Martinez alleges that Mayweather noticed him filming and signaled for one of his bodyguards to intervene. The bodyguard then allegedly knocked Martinez down to the ground with an unspecified blow and began wrestling with him in an attempt to confiscate the cell phone, “causing further injuries and damages,” according to an official complaint.
Martinez filed a battery report shortly after the incident, but LAPD sources have allegedly told TMZ that a witness contradicted his version of the story.
Martinez is seeking unspecified “general damages for past, present and future pain, distress, anguish and suffering, including physical and mental pain and suffering, inconvenience, emotional stress, and impairment of the quality of life,” as well as other damages, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit names Mayweather, the Money Team LLC, and the Yard House as defendants.
Mayweather has denied that the incident ever took place, with a representative of the boxer saying that he had only “stopped by” the restaurant and left because it was too crowded.
Jamahal Hill isn’t letting Magomed Ankalaev butt past him in the contenders’ line.
Ankalaev recently ran his unbeaten streak to 12 straight fights with a second-round knockout of Johnny Walker and subsequently called for a shot at UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. In his post-fight scrum, Ankalaev said (via a Russian translator), “I think here the math works out, the way that I’m more deserving of the belt because I have 10 victories, six of them knockouts, and Jamahal Hill has eight fights total in the UFC. So it’s just clear that I’m a more deserving contender than Jamahal Hill.”
On his YouTube channel, Hill took aim at Ankalaev’s comments, questioning the logic behind the statement by suggesting that he’s had more recent success than Ankalaev.
“That’s some weird math to try to math,” Hill said. “First, Magomed, I get it, you want your dream to come true and things like that. You want to get back to a shot and you’re hungry. Like, bro is not very bright. He doesn’t do bright things. Nothing about his movement or motion or anything he does seems bright at all, so I’m not really surprised that he has a not-so-bright take on this whole thing. So let’s analyze this. Let’s look at our last four fights.
“Minus this Johnny Walker fight, you had a no-contest that you could have been disqualified for because you can’t seem to understand what the rules are, you can’t knee people in the head when they’re on the ground, as well as how you seem to always hit people in the back of the head. Like I said, not high IQ things, just in there swinging. So you go from no-contest, a draw, and you had a win before—the ninth win that you’re talking about, the guy broke his leg, shout out Anthony Smith—now Anthony Smith broke his leg. He injured himself in that fight. So it wasn’t like you went in and dominated that fight. It was an underwhelming performance, just like the draw, just like the fight before this last one.”
Hill has not competed since last January at UFC 283, where he scored a one-sided decision win over Glover Teixeira to claim a vacant light heavyweight title. Unfortunately for Hill, he suffered an Achilles injury the following summer that forced him to relinquish the title and has kept him on the sidelines.
It should be noted that while Hill is 4-0 in his past four and Ankalaev just 2-0-1 with a no-contest during that same stretch, five fights ago Hill suffered a TKO loss to Paul Craig. Coincidentally, Craig is the same opponent who beat Ankalaev in his UFC debut back in March 2018.
Regardless of how their résumés compare, Hill is confident that he’s done enough to make himself a must-see act inside the octagon, something that he doesn’t think applies to Ankalaev.
“So where in this math—see, we’re in the entertainment business,” Hill said. “You’re not entertaining. Nobody wants to watch you fight. Nobody’s rushing to pay for your pay-per-view. So whenever it comes down to that, exciting and people want to see fight, I guarantee more people want to see me fight than they want to see you fight. And in that alone, that math, is already killing you. My last four fights have been domination, finish, finish, finish. I’m the former champion. You were given the same chance to become champion and you s*** the bed. You couldn’t finish the job, you couldn’t do it, it wasn’t meant to be for you.
“Whenever I stepped up, I showed my true colors, and I showed that I was ready to step up and actually be a champion. You walk around with this fake entitlement like you’re supposed to just be crowned the champion and it’s just supposed to be for you. You had your chance, you blew it. Now you sit on the sidelines and you wait. You haven’t earned anything, you don’t deserve anything. The most you can earn is consideration of the spot that you’re in right now.”
UFC play-by-play commentator Jon Anik is considering leaving the UFC over online attacks following the UFC 297 main event decision.
Dricus Du Plessis captured the UFC middleweight title by defeating Sean Strickland in the UFC 297 main event on Jan. 20 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada. Like with all close fights, people scored the fight differently. Anik and podcast co-host and former UFC fighter Kenny Florian both scored the fight for Du Plessis.
In the aftermath, Anik’s social media feeds and YouTube channel have been filled with attacks from Strickland fans over the decision. Anik and Florian weren’t the only ones who scored the UFC 297 main event for Du Plessis. Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo did as well. Former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker also scored the fight for Du Plessis, among others.
The online attacks have Anik considering leaving the UFC.
“I am growing tired of this MMA space a little bit, and just the morass of negativity when there is a close fight,” Anik said on the Anik and Florian Podcast on YouTube. “Because even if you and I both thought Dricus Du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully. And when I go onto X or I go to our YouTube comments, it seems like a lot of these fans are just in attack mode. And I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not.”
“I appreciate the passion, but I’m getting to a point at 45 years of age where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space,” Anik continued. “If I go do pro football, I’m not necessarily gonna be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time. I don’t know, man. I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fan base.”
Related: Dricus Du Plessis reflects on championship win over Sean Strickland
“Don’t take it from me. Demetrious Johnson and Kenny Florian thought ‘DDP’ won the fight. I’ve just been very off-put with the negativity that has permeated my feed since Saturday night, and I’m just not sure how much longer I have left in this space — honestly. Those of you suggesting that there’s any bias or you don’t like me, well, you’ll probably get your f—–g wish come 2026, because honestly, at this point, I’ve had it.”
Jon Anik | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Jon Anik is a man of the people, but some of the people are grating on his nerves.
On an episode of the Anik and Florian Podcast, the popular UFC play-by-play man spoke about the backlash he received on social media after scoring this past Saturday’s UFC 297 main event in favor of Dricus du Plessis. After 25 minutes of closely fought action, du Plessis defeated champion Sean Strickland by split decision to claim the UFC middleweight title.
An exasperated Anik explained why the most toxic portion of the MMA fan base has him considering a change in careers.
“I am growing tired of this MMA space a little bit, and just the morass of negativity when there is a close fight, because even if you and I both thought Dricus du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully,” Anik said. “When I go on to X, or when I go to our YouTube comments, it seems like a lot of these fans are just in attack mode. I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not, but I appreciate the passion, but I’m getting to a point where at 45 years of age where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space, because if I go do pro football, like, I’m not necessarily going to be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time.
“I don’t know, I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fan base. We can disagree, don’t take it from me, Demetrious Johnson and Kenny Florian thought ‘DDP’ won the fight. I’ve just been very off put with the negativity that has permeated my feed since Saturday night, and I’m just not sure how much longer I have in this space, honestly.”
The conflict is especially frustrating for Anik, who prides himself on interacting with fans as much as possible. Since debuting as a commentator for the UFC in January 2012, Anik has arguably become the voice of the promotion and one of the most popular members of the broadcast team.
However, when it comes to the fans, Anik doesn’t plan to waste time with some of them – especially if they’re only interested in hurling insults.
“I try to be accessible and engage with fans, especially on X, and some of my broadcast partners—Joe Rogan chief among them—their profile is so high, and they are so famous that they can’t possibly engage with the fans on a regular basis,” Anik said. “Even somebody like Daniel Cormier. So you’ve got to post and ghost a little bit. But for me, I try to be that accessible conduit for the fans, and what I’m finding is that 90 percent of what I am sifting through is negative, and a lot of those comments are said in an antagonistic, attacking type of way. I’ve got three kids and just better things to do with my time.
“But again, I’m trying to be accessible, especially after a fight like this, I want to be able to engage, but when I see the venom that some people are coming at us with, it just makes me disengage. So I guess maybe my thesis statement should be if you see me disengage and not be as omnipresent and as accessible on X, it’s because the fan base is starting to turn me off. [ESPN reporter] Marc Raimondi had a very thoughtful post about this on Instagram, this sport is getting worse by the minute in terms of all the negativity in the air.”
Anik said that he’s been advised to just ignore the comments, but considering that much of his job is relaying accurate information to the MMA viewership, both through his on-air UFC duties and his podcast, he’s having trouble biting his tongue.
The irritation has pushed Anik to the point that he openly wondered if he will continue in his current role for more than another couple of years.
“A lot of fans are suggesting to me to not even engage with these people, but gosh, how many comments have we heard about ‘To be the champion, you’ve got to beat the champion?’” Anik said. “So I would throw it back to you fans who think that Kenny and I are not understanding what you’re saying, or are dismissive of what you are saying. So are you folks suggesting that for a judge like Sal D’Amato in a close round, say Round 3, he should give it to Strickland because he’s the champion? Because if that’s what you are suggesting, that is absolutely inane. And take it from [Severe MMA reporter] Seán Sheehan, when the fight starts, neither man is the champion, and that’s the way you need to judge the fight.
“But those of you suggesting that there’s any bias, or you don’t like me, well, you’ll probably get your f****** wish come 2026 because honestly, at this point, I’ve had it.”
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