Ex-NBA Star Michael Carter-Williams Set To Make Boxing Debut, Hoping For Knockout

Michael Carter-Williams has traded in jump shots and chest passes for jabs and body blows — he’s a boxer now — and he tells TMZ Sports he’s gunning for a knockout in his first time on the mat later this month!!

The ex-NBA star — the 11th overall pick in the 2013 draft — has formally made the transition to the fight game since the end of his hooping career … and his first official match will go down at the Broad Street Brawl on May 29 at the Leman Ballroom in New York.

His opponent is Sam Khatib — an amateur boxer who’s 36 — and it will be a three-round affair with proceeds from the tilt going to a good cause.

Carter-Williams, the 2013 NBA Rookie of the Year, told us he’s stoked to mix it up for real for the first time in his fight career … explaining he’s been “locked in” with training.

So much so, the 33-year-old showed us he recently got a shiner during a sparring sesh!!

Despite his relative newness to the sport, MCW told us his goal is a KO — explaining, “I know they’re going to come in and try and knock me out, so that’s what I’m doing!”

As for his plans for after, he said he’ll be looking for more future bouts — though he totally ruled out a return to the hardwood.

“We’ll see where it takes me,” he said, “but I definitely want to fight. I definitely want to have fights.”