Shaquille O'Neal Accepts Invitation to Fight Will Smith's Former Bodyguard: 'Diesel Don't Run from Nobody'

NEED TO KNOW

• Shaquille O'Neal is headed to a boxing ring
• The former NBA great accepted an invitation to fight Charlie Mack, a hip-hop music veteran who was once Will Smith's bodyguard
• The time and place of the boxing match has not yet been determined

Shaquille O’Neal is ready to settle a beef — inside the boxing ring!

The NBA Hall of Famer has accepted an invitation to spar with Charlie Mack, after the music industry veteran proposed that the two settle their differences with a fight.

“Hey celebrity boxing and Charlie Mack, I accept,’’ O’Neal, 53, said in a video posted to Instagram on Monday, Aug. 18. “You name the time and place, I’ll be there. Diesel don’t run from nobody.’’

Will Smith’s former bodyguard made the offer and explained the origin of his longstanding rivalry with the Inside the NBA analyst in a video shared to the platform earlier that day.

“We were in Dallas doing an autograph signing, and [O’Neal] came and tried to jump in front of the line,” Mack, who is reported to be in his 50s, told Damon Feldman, CEO of Officially Celebrity Boxing. “I chopped him in his neck so he could get back.’’ 

On Tuesday, Mack shared a fight poster, with the two parties seemingly still ironing out a time and place for the match.

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A post shared by Charlie Mack aka Kareem Abdullah aka Mr. Philadelphia (@charliemackfirstout)

“So I call Big Fella @shaq out yesterday & he accepted as I knew he would!!!!” Mack wrote. “We’ve been talking about it way too long, now we MUST get it ON!!!!!!!! The details will come soon from The Best Celebrity Boxer promoter.”

Shaq’s possible upcoming boxing match comes more than a year after he publicly waged another feud — that time with former ESPN analyst Shannon Sharpe.

The former Los Angeles Lakers star released a diss track in May 2024 after the two retired athletes traded barbs surrounding that season’s NBA MVP Nikola Jokic.

After O’Neal interviewed Jokic and told him that he thought the honor should have gone to Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Sharpe accused Shaq of being jealous of the Serbian player.

Later on Instagram, O’Neal returned the insult.

"Shows how smart you are and how you say anything to get clicks. so here’s some click bait for you," O'Neal wrote, suggesting that Sharpe "can't speak on" him because he isn't "ranked in the top ten" in his "profession."

O'Neal told Sharpe, "Don't forget I know what you did to get were [sic] you at," and added, "me jealous, sounds like you jealous."

Read the original article on People