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.