trash

With the 2028 Olympic Games less than three years away, Mayor Karen Bass is showing a newfound interest in one of L.A.’s less flattering qualities: its trash-strewn streets.

In April, Bass announced the launch of Shine L.A., a beautification program that sends ordinary Angelenos out with shovels, gloves and trash bags to remove detritus from streets and sidewalks.

Officials are also scrambling to comply with a June 2026 legal deadline for removing 9,800 homeless encampments — tents, makeshift shelters and even RVs. And they’re working to divert three-fourths of the city’s food scraps and other organic waste away from landfills, as required under state law.

Now, the Bureau of Sanitation faces the prospect of more disruption, with its top executive stepping down after four and a half years.

Barbara Romero, who was appointed in 2021 by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, told sanitation employees in an email on Monday that she will leave at the end of the year. She did not say what prompted her departure or whether she has another job lined up.

Romero did not respond to requests for comment. A Bass spokesperson declined to comment on the reason for the exit, referring The Times to Romero’s email.

“Mayor Bass thanks her for her many years of service and significant contributions to the people of Los Angeles,” said the spokesperson, Clara Karger.

Bruce Reznik, executive director of the environmental group Los Angeles Waterkeeper, said he is “frustrated and angry” over the pending departure — and is convinced that Romero is being pushed out by the mayor.

Reznik described Romero as a crucial voice at City Hall on environmental issues, such as the effort to build new wastewater recycling facilities. Romero also secured new funding to pay for repairs to the city’s aging sewer system, which will in turn avert future sewage spills, he said.

“She genuinely cares about these issues,” Reznik said. “She will engage communities, even when it’s uncomfortable.”

Romero’s departure comes at a crucial time for her agency — one of the city’s largest, with well over 3,000 employees and a budget of more than $400 million. Since Bass took office in December 2022, the agency has been working to bring in more money to cover the cost of trash pickup and sewer system upgrades.

This month, the City Council hiked trash removal fees to nearly $56 per month, up from $36.32 for single-family homes and duplexes and $24.33 for three- and four-unit apartment properties. The increase, which is expected to generate $200 million per year for the city, will be followed by several more fee hikes through 2029.

The department is also in the middle of its once-a-decade selection of private companies to carry out RecycLA, the commercial trash program that serves L.A. businesses and apartment buildings with five or more units.

Then there’s the basic issue of trash, which ranges from discarded fast food wrappers lining gutters to illegal dumping problems in Watts, Wilmington and other neighborhoods. International visitors to L.A. — first for next year’s World Cup, then the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028 — will have a close-up view of some residents’ slovenly ways.

Bass has sought to avert that scenario by creating Shine L.A., which has marshaled thousands of Angelenos to participate in monthly cleanups and tree plantings in such areas as downtown, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. In her most recent State of the City address, Bass said the initiative would restore local pride in the city.

“It’s about choosing to believe in our city again, and proving it with action,” she said. “Block by block, we will come together to be stronger, more unified than ever before. And that matters, especially in a world that feels more divided with each passing day.”

Chatsworth resident Jill Mather, who founded the group Volunteers Cleaning Communities, said she has already participated in Bass’ program. Still, she warned it will do little to address the parts of the city that have been hit hard by illegal dumping or others that have long-term homeless encampments.

“There are serious areas that need serious cleanup, and once a month in one area is not going to do it,” said Mather, whose members fan out across the Valley each day to pick up trash.

Mather said the city’s homelessness crisis is deeply intertwined with its trash problem, with sanitation crews facing limits on the removal of objects that might be someone’s property. Beyond that, Mather said, the sanitation bureau lacks the resources to gain control over the volume of refuse that’s discarded on a daily basis.

Estela Lopez, executive director of the Downtown Industrial District Business Improvement District, said her organization regularly sends the city photos and videos of trucks and other vehicles — with license plates clearly visible — dumping garbage in the eastern half of downtown.

Those perpetrators have treated the neighborhood like an “open-air landfill,” she said.

“We’ve seen everything from rotting produce and other food to refrigerators, couches, green waste, flowers, tires and construction debris,” Lopez said. “It’s the extent of it, the amount of it, and the fact that no one seems to have a solution to it.”

Lopez said she believes that downtown’s trash problem has gotten worse since the city created RecycLA a decade ago. That trash franchise program was so expensive for customers, she said, that some businesses scaled back pickup service or dropped it entirely.

“The city shot itself in the foot,” she said.

Romero, in her letter to her staff, pointed to her agency’s many accomplishments. Since she took the helm, she said, the bureau succeeded in increasing sewer fees for the first time in a decade, putting them on track to double by July 2028.

Romero championed the construction of a water purification facility that is expected to recharge the San Fernando Valley groundwater aquifer and provide drinking water for 500,000 people. She also pushed for a comprehensive strategy for reducing citywide use of plastics.

Lisa Gritzner, chief executive of the consulting firm LG Strategies, said Romero has been “very accessible” at City Hall, jumping on problems that go far beyond trash pickup. When a multistory, multi-tower affordable-housing project faced a tight deadline to secure a wastewater permit in Skid Row, Romero moved quickly to address the situation, Gritzner said.

“She was very good at helping to navigate the red tape, so we could get the project open,” said Gritzner, who represented one of the project’s developers.

City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez said he feels good about the city’s handling of trash — at least in his district, which stretches from Echo Park and Historic Filipinotown to Hollywood and Atwater Village.

“I feel like our district does a good job of addressing 311 requests, illegal dumping, the trash,” he said. “We have a very nimble and efficient team.”

Soto-Martínez said he’s not too worried about Romero’s departure, noting that the top managers of city agencies “change all the time.”

“We have a lot of talented people in the city,” he said. “Losing one person doesn’t mean the city falls apart, whether it’s a council member or a general manager.”

Many Los Angeles residents will soon be paying significantly more for trash collection after the City Council voted Tuesday to finalize a dramatic fee increase.

The trash program had become heavily subsidized, to the tune of about $500,000 a day, which officials said was no longer viable given the city’s dire financial straits, which left them scrambling to close a nearly $1-billion budget deficit earlier this year.

Having the cost subsidized by the city for so long contributed to that deficit, according to City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.

“It should have been corrected a long time ago,” Szabo said. “If we didn’t get this rate increase, the subsidy would have been more than $200 million this year.”

The city hadn’t raised trash pickup fees in 17 years, and a 2016 state law governing organic waste disposal significantly increased operational costs. Large raises for city sanitation workers and rising equipment costs also bumped up expenditures.

Once the new fees go into effect, probably in mid-November, residents of single-family homes or apartments with four units or less will pay $55.95 a month per unit.

That sum is more than double the $24.33 a month that occupants of triplexes and fourplexes had been paying, and a roughly 50% increase on the $36.32 previously paid by residents of single-family homes and duplexes.

Those customers put their waste in black bins for regular trash, blue bins for recycling and green bins for organic waste, which are emptied by city workers once a week. Larger apartment buildings will be unaffected by the changes, because their waste collection is administered through a separate program.

The fees will increase by an additional $10 over the next four years.

By next year, the increased fees will reflect the actual cost of trash pickup and will be on par with or slightly below what residents pay in nearby cities such as Long Beach, Pasadena, Culver City and Glendale.

Still, the new fees will almost certainly engender sticker shock for L.A. residents already contending with skyrocketing insurance premiums, rising rents and eye-popping grocery prices. Rates will be reduced for low-income customers who qualify for the city’s EZ-SAVE or Lifeline programs.

The City Council approved the increase on a 12-2 vote, with Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Adrin Nazarian dissenting.

Last week, the council also voted to raise the prices and hours of city parking meters.

“After approving a $2.6-billion Convention Center expansion, the council is asking residents to pay more for basic services like trash collection while delivering less. That doesn’t reflect the priorities of working Angelenos,” Rodriguez said after Tuesday’s vote. “I can’t, in good conscience, support that approach.”

A number of factors catalyzed the city’s financial issues, which exploded into public view during the budget process earlier this year. Los Angeles had taken in weaker than expected tax revenues, paid out more in legal liabilities and adopted large-scale raises for city employees.

When Mayor Karen Bass first presented her budget in the spring, layoffs for more than 1,600 city workers were on the table. She and the City Council were ultimately able to avoid those cuts through a number of cost-saving measures.

Tuesday’s final vote on the trash fees came nearly six months after the council gave preliminary approval to the plan.

The matter was complicated by Proposition 218, a 1996 statewide ballot measure designed to make it harder for local governments to raise taxes and fees. To satisfy the proposition’s requirements, the city had to hold public hearings and give every affected resident the opportunity to weigh in via a notice mailed to their homes before the increase could move forward.

The fee hike legislation still has to be signed by the mayor and formally published by the city clerk. The fee can’t go into effect until 31 days after that, or mid-November at the earliest.

The city budget, however, was calculated under the assumption that the new fees would go into effect Oct. 1. The delay will leave the city on the hook for an extra $500,000 a day.

Because Tuesday’s vote was not unanimous, the ordinance will receive a second reading next week before the council formally approves it and sends it to the mayor — a technicality that will cost the city $3.5 million. The mayor plans to sign it as soon as she receives it, her office said.

The delay to mid-November will cost the city a total of at least $22 million, creating another deficit that will have to be adjusted for down the line.

Still, some residents decried the ballooning fees, with one calling the increase “preposterous.”

“Listen to our cries,” the person, who did not give their name,said in a written public comment. “We can barely keep a roof over our heads — at this time! Los Angeles is falling apart. It is your job to fix it more practically.”

The Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council also opposed the rate hike, arguing that residents are already facing steep cost-of-living increases and that layering more fees on top of that would be “neither fair nor sustainable.”

The last time the city increased trash fees, back in the summer of 2008, City Controller Kenneth Mejia was a few months out of high school, George W. Bush was in the Oval Office and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was topping the Billboard charts.

Amid a global economic downturn, the city was facing widespread cuts, and leaders looked — as they often do — to the price tag of city services to try to balance the budget.

Times staff writers David Zahniser and Dakota Smith contributed to this report.

Across the nation’s beloved national parks this summer, skeleton crews — whittled down by the Trump administration’s reduction of the federal workforce — have struggled to keep trash from piling up, latrines from spilling over and injured hikers from perishing in the backcountry.

They’ve mostly succeeded, but it has been a struggle.

Now, as bickering politicians in Washington, D.C., threaten to shut the government down and furlough federal employees as soon as next week if a budget deal isn’t reached, 40 former stewards of the nation’s most remote and romantic landscapes have sent an “urgent appeal” to the White House.

If the government shuts down, close the national parks to prevent a free-for-all inside the gates.

Pointing to the strain the parks are already enduring since the new administration fired or bought out roughly 24% of the workforce, the retired superintendents — including those from Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon — warned of chaos.

If the parks stay open with no employees to manage them, “these nascent issues from the summer season are sure to erupt,” the former superintendents wrote to Doug Burgum, secretary of the Department of the Interior, on Thursday. “Leaving parks even partially open to the public during a shutdown with minimal — or no — park staffing is reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk.”

Unlike many federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, whose once obscure and mundane day-to-day operations have become flash points in the nation’s toxic and polarizing culture war, the national parks remain a beloved refuge: a place where Americans of all stripes can unplug, exhale and escape.

In 2024 the parks set an attendance record with over 331 million visitors; that’s nearly two and a half times the number of people (136 million) who attended professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games combined.

It’s not hard to understand the appeal. Exhausted by the bickering on cable news and social media feeds? Go climb Half Dome in Yosemite, or stroll among the giant trees in Sequoia, or camp beneath the stars in Joshua Tree.

But if the parks stay open with nobody around to maintain them, that cleansing experience will turn nasty the moment a bathroom door opens, according to the retired superintendents.

In previous shutdowns stemming from budget disputes or the COVID-19 pandemic, facilities inside the parks deteriorated at an alarming rate.

Unauthorized visitors left human feces in rivers, painted graffiti on once pristine cliffs, harassed wild animals and left the toilets looking like “crime scenes,” according to a ranger who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

“It’s just scary how bad things can get when places are abandoned with nobody watching,” she said.

In an interview Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said a government shutdown was still “avoidable” despite sharp divisions ahead of Wednesday’s deadline to pass a funding bill.

“I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” the South Dakota Republican said. “And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don’t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.”

Thune said Democrats are going to have to “dial back” their demands, which include immediately extending health insurance subsidies and reversing the healthcare policies in the massive tax bill that Republicans passed over the summer. Absent that, Thune said, “we’re probably plunging forward toward the shutdown.”

After a shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, park rangers in Death Valley returned to find mounds of feces and what they jokingly called “toilet paper flowers” scattered across the desert floor.

At Joshua Tree, officials found about 24 miles of unauthorized new trails carved across the desert by off-road vehicles, along with some of the park’s namesake trees toppled.

In the absence of park staff, local climbers volunteered to keep the bathrooms clean and stocked with toilet paper, and gently tried to persuade rowdy visitors to put out illegal fires and pick up their trash.

Some complied right away, climber Rand Abbott told The Times in 2019, but “70% of the people I’m running into are extremely rude,” he said. “I had my life threatened two times. It’s crazy in there right now.”

People weren’t the only unruly guests moving in and making themselves at home.

At Point Reyes National Seashore, along the Marin County coast, officials had to close the road to popular Drakes Beach during the shutdown. The absence of humans created an ideal opportunity for about 100 elephant seals to set up a colony, taking over the beach, a parking lot and a visitor center.

The seals didn’t just poop everywhere, they threw a full-scale bacchanal. As far as the eye could see, enormous, blubbery beasts — males can reach 16 feet long and weigh up to 7,000 pounds — were rolling in the sand and mating in broad daylight.

Females, which can weigh up to a ton themselves, wound up giving birth to something like 40 new pups. When the park reopened, flustered officials had little recourse but to open a public viewing area at a safe distance and send employees — primly referred to as “docents” — to explain what was happening on the once serene seashore.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nostalgia for extreme tackiness is surely one of the funnier outcomes of a cult film’s success. (Does one sigh wistfully at such memories or smile through a grimace?) The gleeful cine-garbage factory Troma is, at 50 years and counting, now a hallowed name in outsider movie circles, with much of its reputation stemming from an ’80s output that seemed appropriate for the Reagan era. That especially goes for its 1984 monster comedy “The Toxic Avenger,” about a head-smashing vigilante forged from green chemical sludge. It was antipollution if you wanted to be charitable, but really, it was anti-everything. Haste plus waste, made for very bad taste.

Now, of course, we all recycle trash in our daily lives. But does it work as a film principle? Troma aficionado Macon Blair, a key on-and-offscreen collaborator of Jeremy Saulnier (“Blue Ruin,” “Hold the Dark”) and a Sundance-winning writer-director in his own right (“I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore”), has taken up the challenge with his own “The Toxic Avenger,” starring Peter Dinklage as this version’s mutant hero, Toxie, and maybe the worst thing one could say about it is that it’s well-made.

Cue the disconnect when, expecting to be offended by garish, cheap filmmaking, one realizes that so much of the Troma style — gratuitous gore, filthy mouths, blunt-force parody — is ubiquitous to any regular genre diet in film or TV. That leaves matters of artistic character and there’s no getting around the fact that Blair has made the conscious decision that his “Toxic Avenger,” though rude, violent and goofy to a fault, wouldn’t look bad. It’s even got appealing stars: Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Taylour Paige. Is nothing sacred?

But when even the biggest-budgeted movies now look terrible, everything’s already upside-down. What Blair has assembled, then, is diverting homage-schlock: a one-joke Halloween costume you’ll never wear again. Only this time, it asserts its environmental consciousness like a middle finger. The story’s Big Pharma outfit, called BTH, is a full-on villainous entity now, run by rapacious CEO Bob Garbinger (Bacon) who’s pumping consumers with harmful lifestyle drugs when he isn’t hiring a dim-witted punk band to kill a journalist (Paige) trying to expose him. (A muckraking mentor, seen only at the beginning, is called Mel Ferd, a shout-out to the original Toxie’s name.)

And yet things are also, in Blair’s setup, anchored in emotional sincerity (gasp). Dinklage’s affectingly drawn Winston Goose is no mere browbeaten BTH janitor — he’s a soft-spoken widower struggling to raise a stepson (Jacob Tremblay). Winston has also been diagnosed with a terminal illness and medical insurance won’t cover it. His Kafkaesque phone call about his employee plan is almost too realistic to find funny.

Trying to rob his employer one night with a mop dipped in toxic muck, Winston is shot and thrown into said slop. Instead of killing him, though, it transforms Winston into a disfigured creature (performer Luisa Guerreiro does the post-mutation suit work) with a removable eye, blood running blue, and — in a Tromatic touch — acid for urine. His gory dispatching of criminals notwithstanding, the mop-wielding Toxie becomes a community hero for calling out BTH as “ruiners.” But it also puts a target on his splotchy, misshapen head, especially when Garbinger senses in his nemesis an exploitable biofuel.

Whether poking at superhero cliches (there’s a choice post-credit scene) or trying to be kill-clever, it’s all in dopey, gruesome fun, although, to reiterate, a “Toxic Avenger” even normies can enjoy doesn’t exactly sound like a true Troma tribute. Which may explain why its trashmonger founder (and original “Toxic” co-creator) Lloyd Kaufman’s cameo, late in the film, is him crankily muttering next to Blair, who looks just as peeved. They probably had a blast filming it.

For the uninitiated, Laguna Beach is Southern California at its most postcard-worthy, a stretch of the Orange County coastline filled with frothy waves, winding canyons and afternoon beachgoers. Yet it doesn’t take long to realize that it’s not just Laguna Beach’s sand that’s worth digging into.

Laguna Beach, for instance, is art.

The modern history of the beachside community often zeroes in on its artistic legacy. And for good reason. Plein air artists — that is, those dedicated to painting outdoors and capturing the beauty of a landscape or a moment — are believed to have begun descending upon the region in the late 1880s. In the early 1900s, it was plein air artists who established the Laguna Beach Art Assn., which ultimately led to the founding of the Laguna Art Museum.

And today, Laguna Beach stages two of Southern California’s most cherished art events. The Festival of the Arts, home to the summer tradition that is the Pageant of the Masters, and the Sawdust Art Festival continue to define Laguna Beach as an art-forward haven for free thinking.

Laguna Beach is also history.

The aforementioned Laguna Art Museum is one of the oldest artistic institutions in Southern California, its current location dating to 1929. The city’s Marine Room Tavern, established in 1934, is one of the oldest bars in Orange County, the site of the second liquor license ever approved in Laguna Beach. Its Catholic church, St. Francis by the Sea, was built in 1933 and once held the mantle of the smallest cathedral in the world. And the Laguna Playhouse is said to be one of the oldest not-for-profit continuously operating theaters on the West Coast, with a history dating to the 1920s.

And yet Laguna Beach is tension.

Summer crowds, a tourism necessity for the area, also bring with them a host of nuances for locals — traffic, trash, public drunkenness and the risk of dirtying up the city’s pristine beaches, five of which ranked among The Times’ list of the best in the state. It’s a privileged party atmosphere that no doubt once contributed to the area’s spotlight for trashy reality television.

Yet that wasn’t the real Laguna, as Laguna Beach is a community.

Today, it’s a place one can find a magical wonderland dedicated to the joy of fairy tales, and to walk its Coast Highway — or take in its sights via one of the city’s free trolleys — is to find a host of quirky surf shops, chocolatiers, wine and snack outposts, and a bounty of galleries. And, yes, those magnificent beaches.

EXCLUSIVE: Love Island’s Malin Andersson, who starred in the second season of the ITV2 dating show in 2016, has slammed the series as ‘toxic’ and said it should be taken off air

Former Love Island star Malin Andersson, who shot to fame on series two, has radically changed her opinion of the hit dating show, branding it “full of toxicity” and insisting it should be axed.

While other participants, including Amy Hart and Amber Davies, have praised the show for its support and aftercare – with Olivia Attwood saying “ Love Island saved me”– Malin, who took part in the show in 2016, has a very different view.

Here, the 32-year-old, who memorably confronted ex Terry Walsh in the villa, tells new why she feels so strongly about her time on Love Island and why she would be dead against her daughter Xaya, three, going on the show when she’s older.

Hi, Malin! Love Island’s back but you’re not watching. Why?

I haven’t watched any of them. It should be axed. When I was on it, we were naive, it felt more organic – still scripted but more authentic. Even then, it wasn’t pure, it was full of toxicity. Now millions watch it, especially young people, and their idea of love gets completely skewed.

Some contestants spiral completely. Did you ever feel like that on the show? Oh, 100%. I felt disposable, like a piece of rubbish tossed aside. In there, you’re fighting to be seen, to be a main character, seeking validation. It’s not healthy – it creates unrealistic drama and messes up how viewers see love. The whole thing is toxic and should go in the bin. Let’s talk about the time when you came back in to confront Terry. How did that happen? I was already partying in Spain when Emma [Jane Woodhams] went in with the TOWIE lot. They realised I was nearby and asked me to come in too. So I did the next day. Were you watching the show then?

No. I was just partying and Tweeting stuff to provoke producers to get me back in – and it worked.

How did you feel after confronting Terry? Did it bring clarity? No, it just showed me that I had been attracting terrible men my whole life until I figured out why.

How did you heal? It’s been a powerful journey but not easy. I had to look at parts of myself I didn’t want to see – why I wanted to be seen, why I accepted bad love. It starts with what we’re shown as kids. TV shows like Love Island feed the same toxic ideas. They don’t care about feelings – just money and drama. I wish there were shows about real healing. Why do you think people love watching the show? People are living through other people’s lives because they want escapism. We’re all scrolling, looking at everyone else’s stories, wanting to be part of it. The format is easy: pretty girls, good-looking guys who can’t even talk properly. It’s a quick dopamine hit. This year they say they will show sex on screen if it happens, to show “real relationships”. What are your thoughts? They’re struggling for viewers, that’s all. It’s not real – living in a house with people with no phone or sanity, isn’t real. When you were there, did producers suggest you talk to certain people or stir things? All the time. If people were gossiping about me, they’d tell me to go over. They’d nudge conversations or set up who should talk to whom. It’s all manipulated for reactions. So why did you decide to go on the show in the first place? I’d been on Take Me Out at 18. The same producer called me a year later, asked if I was single. I said yes, and they fast-tracked me in, I didn’t even audition. I was just a young girl wanting fun – clueless, really. This year on Love Island there are older contestants – 30 and 29. The youngest is 22. How does that dynamic work? The older ones get seen as Mummy and Daddy, that’s how society is. I’m 32 and people act like that’s ancient. The show pushes a narrow look – perfect bodies, the “ideal” appearance. Anything outside that is labelled abnormal. It tells kids they have to fit that mould.

How about diversity? There are more people from different backgrounds on the show… It’s sad we even have to call it “diverse”. We should just be one mix of people – different races, professions, appearances. We’re all the same inside. Are you looking for love now? I feel he’s around the corner! I want someone with a pure soul and real masculine energy – not ego-driven but someone who makes me feel safe. I’m not really dating right now. Will you tell your daughter about your time on the show? She’ll find out eventually. She sees how I live and grow, and that’s why I feel so strongly about all this – to protect her too. If she ever wanted to go on Love Island, what would you say? Nah, babes. I’d tell her no way – with no reason given.

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JAKE PAUL revealed he is goading Anthony Joshua about being knocked out – as their “s*** talking” ramps up behind the scenes.

Paul audaciously called out the two-time heavyweight champion on his podcast earlier this year – vowing to knock Joshua out.

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It did not take long for AJ to quite literally call the prankster-turned-prizefighter’s bluff by phoning him up – but Paul countered by suggesting a 2026 fight date.

And Paul has now revealed the two are already goading each other privately over social media – as all’s fair in love and war.

He said: “It was all nice, we’ve been cordial. He DMd me today like saying “LOL” to one of my training clips and then I sent him a “LOL” of of him getting knocked out.

“And so I guess like we’re kind of s*** talking, behind the scenes a bit. But I have a lot of love for Anthony Joshua.

“I think this type of stuff is funny and he’s a great guy and I think just a fight between us would be awesome and I do believe I can win.”

Joshua, 35, is yet to fight since being KO’d by Daniel Dubois, 27, at Wembley in September having undergone elbow surgery in May.

Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed AJ hopes to return before the year is over – meanwhile Paul faces ex-middleweight world champ Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on June 28.

It comes after he stepped up to heavyweight in November to face Mike Tyson – who controversially made a comeback aged 58.

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Still over 100 MILLION tuned in to watch Paul’s eight-round points win on Netflix – but it came at the cost of piling on TWO STONE.

And Paul – who gorged on pasta, steaks and potatoes to bulk up – admitted the heavyweight jump was “brutal”.

The 28-year-old added: “It was just too much and my body wasn’t made for it and even when I got into the ring I just felt too fat.

“So cruiserweight is definitely the perfect weight for me.”

Paul will come down from 16st 2lb to the 200lb cruiserweight limit of 14st 4lb to face Chavez in California.

It followed after Canelo Alvarez, 34, pulled out of a shock deal to fight Paul in Las Vegas on May 3 – instead signing with Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh.

Canelo – who beat Chavez on points in 2017 – regained his undisputed super-middleweight titles with victory over William Scull in May.

And now he defends the 168lb thrown in a September 13 super-fight against unbeaten American Terence Crawford, 37, as Paul was forced to look elsewhere.

But he said: “Chavez and I have been going back and forth for a long time and he’s always been a great opponent on the list of someone that I wanted to fight.

“And now it made perfect sense to go up against him as a former world champion and just continuing to further my resume and get more time under the lights.”

Paul also revealed he is in talks to fight current cruiserweight champions Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, 33, and Badou Jack, 41.

And with Gervonta Davis, 30, also lined up for an exhibition bout – Paul says he is boxing’s most desired man.

He joked: I’m like like Megan Fox from Transformers movie like everyone wants me! So there’s not enough time to do it all and it could make sense. Look, it might.

“It might line up but at the end of the day, there’s 100 people that want to fight me. I got Canelo, Gervonta, Anthony Joshua, Badou, Zurdo, Tommy Fury, KSI, the list keeps on going.

“It’s just about what makes sense and we’ll see when the negotiations come but I would for sure entertain a fight with him.”

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