Tyson Fury’s undisputed showdown with Oleksandr Usyk was postponed after ‘The Gypsy King’ suffered a cut in sparring, and now the man who caused it has revealed it came following a prank from Fury.
A few months ago. you could be forgiven for not knowing the name of Croatian heavyweight Agron Smakici, but these days the six-foot-six southpaw is regularly in the headlines, after causing the cut.
Boxing fans around the globe let out a collective sigh of disappointment after the announcement, which delayed the first undisputed heavyweight title fight since 1999.
Speaking to The Sun , Smakici explained that Fury mocked him by ‘thrusting his crotch at his backside’ prior to the spar where the cut occurred, a moment which he says motivated him to prove his class, so much so that an accidental elbow landed on the eye of Fury.
“He did it but it was a joke and I didn’t take it seriously,
“I was not angry, because he was laughing, he is funny. He is a comedian.
“Yes it made me a little more serious, it made me want to show him what I had.
“But it was a clean punch and the elbow was not on purpose, I was just trying to give him better rounds and to show him that I deserved respect.
“I got that respect in the sparring and afterwards he said ‘great sparring, accidents happening, everything before was great’.”
Fury-Usyk will go ahead on May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia , in a monumental showdown that will see the boxing world stand still and hold its breath in anticipation of the conclusive coronation of a heavyweight king.