TMZ Sports - Page 50

IT'S ALL OVER!!

Brock Lesnar has informed the UFC he's officially retiring from MMA.

The 39-year-old superstar informed the UFC about his decision, a rep for the organization tells MMAFighting.com.

Lesnar was a beast in his prime and beat up on some of the greatest fighters in UFC history -- including a win over Randy Couture to win the UFC Heavyweight title back in 2008.

Lesnar had been suspended for 1 year by USADA after failing two UFC 200 drug tests and would have been eligible to fight again in July. Instead, he's hangin' 'em up.

If Lesnar does decide to fight again, he would still have to serve the remainder of his suspension before he would be cleared to get back in the Octagon.

Back in August, Lesnar told TMZ Sports he was considering another fight ... but clearly, things have changed.

Dana White tells TMZ Sports plain and simple ... when it comes to the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight, "There is no deal."

Vaughn (look-alike)? Check.

Dorn (look-alike)? Check.

Willie Mays Hayes (look-alike)? Hell yeah.

With Spring Training underway, the University of Arizona baseball team decided to have a little fun by recreating the famous Spring Training scene from "Major League" ... and it's pretty good.

The only difference, these guys ain't losers -- College Baseball Daily says they're the #7 team in the country.

And get this -- the Wildcats play at Hi Corbett Field ... the same location used in the movie and former spring training facility for the REAL Cleveland Indians until 1992.

Teyana Taylor for the win.

Stop giving the credit to Michael Jordan -- the real hero in the Charles Oakley, Knicks truce is NBA Commish Adam Silver ... so says Kenny Smith.

In fact, Smith says Silver was nothing short of spectacular in his handling of NBA messes since the first day he took the job ... just look at Donald Sterling.

There's a HUGE difference between "gorilla" and "guerrilla" when referring to Venus Williams -- so says ex-ESPN tennis announcer, Doug Adler, who claims he was wrongly fired after people THOUGHT he was being racist.

Adler was calling a match between Venus and Stefanie Voegele at the Australian Open last month when he claims he commented on an exchange by saying, "You see Venus move in and put the guerrilla effect on ... charging."

Adler says Twitter freaked out and misunderstood what he was trying to say -- wrongly interpreting the comment as racist. Instead, Adler says the term is NOT racist, but rather a "frequently used" word in tennis to describe an aggressive style of play. In fact, Adler says Nike ran a tennis campaign back in the '90s called "Guerrilla Tennis."

Adler says ESPN understood what he meant but made him apologize anyway ... only to fire him a short time later.

Adler says he's screwed professionally because of the way his termination played out in the media -- saying, "No one will hire a 'racist.'"

For the record, Adler says he's "anything but a racist."

He's suing for unspecified damages.

Jason Collins says it's "great" that the NBA moved the 2017 All-Star game from North Carolina to New Orleans over a controversial transgender bathroom law ... and states Adam Silver did the right thing.

The NBA had previously said the state's HB2 law -- which requires transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex they were born as -- created a climate that didn't fit with league values.

The league moved the game to New Orleans with the hope of moving it back to North Carolina in 2019 "provided there is an appropriate resolution to this matter."

Still, Collins -- the NBA's first openly gay player -- says he's proud of the league for taking a stand.

THE BAN IS OVER!!

Charles Oakley is NO LONGER persona non grata at Madison Square Garden following a peace summit with Knicks owner, James Dolan, on Monday.

Oakley was blacklisted from the arena after he was arrested last Wednesday for getting physical with security.

A PR war ensued and things seemed to be spiraling out of control until Oakley agreed to meet with Dolan in a session moderated by Michael Jordan.

Call him the eternal optimist ... but Jim Brown says he sincerely believes the Cleveland Browns can turn things around next year.

The NFL legend was leaving Craig's in West Hollywood when he spelled out why the Browns won't be a smoldering dumpster fire in 2017.

For what it's worth, we shot Robert Griffin III a few weeks ago and he told us he's more motivated than ever to rack up some Ws next season.

Forget fishing, Danny Amendola is spending his offseason smizing ... strutting the catwalk at a NYC fashion event in front of some HUGE celebrities.

The Patriots star sashayed down the runway for the Philipp Plein show at the New York public library Monday night ... and from the look of these photos he had his fierce face down Pat (get it?).

Madonna, Kylie Jenner, Sofia Richie, Paris Hilton, Nicky Hilton (remember her?) and Danny's girlfriend, Olivia Culpo, were all in attendance, making this a pretty big moment for the wideout.

BTW, no Falcons were spotted at the event ... because no Falcons want to be seen in public, (it was 28-3, c'mon).

Chicago Cubs star Anthony Rizzo says he's an athlete -- not a politician -- and would NOT have boycotted a visit to Donald Trump's White House.

The World Series champ was at LAX wrapping up a quick L.A. vacation when we asked how he felt about the Patriots players refusing to take their championship visit to 1600 Pennsylvania.

"To each their own, right?" Rizzo said ... adding, "I think anyone who gets to go to the White House is lucky."

Rizzo concluded by telling us it wouldn't have mattered which prez he visited and then pointed to his shirt, which read, "Team USA."

After suffering her 3rd loss in a row, Holly Holm needs to take a break from UFC and try to get on "Dancing with the Stars" ... so says UFC champ Tyron Woodley.

35-year-old Holm hasn't won a single fight since KO'ing Ronda Rousey back in 2015 -- and after her latest loss at UFC 208 over the weekend, some people are saying her fighting career is over.

Woodley isn't ready to stick a fork in Holm -- but says she needs to focus on building her brand OUTSIDE of the Octagon while she's still famous ... and thinks 'Dancing' could be the perfect fit.

The only flaw in Woodley's logic ... is it too little, too late?

Ed Sheeran was the bait in a successful plot to swindle a charity out of 4 primo tickets to Super Bowl 51 ... according to cops trying to track down the scammer.

Marc Pollick -- CEO of The Giving Back Fund -- tells TMZ his charity got a call from someone promising to deliver Ed's singing services for a charity concert on the eve of the big game in Houston. Organizers and cops believe the con artist went so far as to forge Ed's signature on a contract.

The deal was Ed would perform 2 songs, and in return he'd get 4 suite tickets to SB51 ... worth $50k. They met the alleged manager before the event and handed him the precious tickets, and never saw him again. Nor did Ed show up at the event.

We're told the charity found out Sheeran was touring in Australia, and got suspicious they'd been screwed. They contacted cops and found out the tickets were re-sold.

Law enforcement tells us it's got all the makings of a classic scam and the guy behind it could face felony charges.

Charles Oakley's beef with the Knicks looks like it might be squashed ... thanks to Michael Jordan ... who was part of a meeting between Oak, James Dolan and the NBA commish.

Oakley, J.D. and the NBA honcho met face-to-face today in NYC ... while Jordan called into the sit-down.

Adam Silver addressed the high-level meeting in a statement ... saying, "In an effort to find a path forward, New York Knicks owner Jim Dolan, Charles Oakley, and I met today at the league office, along with Michael Jordan, who participated by phone."

“Both Mr. Oakley and Mr. Dolan were apologetic about the incident and subsequent comments, their negative impact on the Knicks organization and the NBA. Mr. Dolan expressed his hope that Mr. Oakley would return to MSG as his guest in the near future."

Last week, Dolan announced Oakley was banned from MSG ... though it looks like the ban might already be lifted.

Patriots running back James White -- the guy who scored the winning TD in the Super Bowl -- says he still hasn't made up his mind about visiting Donald Trump at the White House.

So far, 6 Patriots players have said they're boycotting the victory trip, mostly due to political reasons -- and last week, White said he was on the fence.

When we saw him in NYC Monday we asked if he'd made a decision yet. He's still weighing his options.

We even asked how he felt about Tony Gonzalez saying players should use the trip to express their concerns to Trump himself. White didn't sound convinced.

Oakland Raiders star Aldon Smith is being investigated for what we're told is a domestic incident ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Sources tell us cops in San Francisco were called early Saturday morning and responded to a home in the city. Smith owns a house in San Francisco.

Police interviewed Smith and the alleged victim and took a report. The case is under "active investigation."

Smith has not been arrested.

An arrest would be catastrophic for Smith's career -- he's currently suspended by the NFL for multiple violations of the league's substance abuse policy.

Smith was expected to be reinstated in March, on the assumption he stayed out of trouble. An arrest could undo his prospects.

Smith has had several run-ins with police since he was drafted by the 49ers back in 2011.

Smith showed extreme potential when he was on the field -- he was the NFC Defensive Player of the Year back in 2012.