THE sparring partner who cut Tyson Fury and delayed his undisputed showdown with Oleksandr Usyk reportedly “doesn’t feel bad about it”.
The biggest heavyweight fight in over a quarter of a century was postponed this week after Fury suffered a horror cut in one of his final sparring sessions.
Fury, 35, had the scar tissue left from the nasty cut he received in his 2019 Las Vegas showdown with Swedish slugger Otto Wallin re-opened in the ill-fated spar.
Footage of the incident appeared to show that an accidental elbow was the cause of the costly cut, which required a whopping 15 stitches.
But the man responsible for delaying the first-ever undisputed heavyweight showdown in the four-belt era has zero remorse for his actions.
Multiple sources have confirmed to SunSport that Croatian heavyweight Agron Smakici was the sparring partner who cut Fury.
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But the 6’6 giant – who is also a mixed martial artist – insists that it was his left hand, not his left elbow, that cut the brow of Fury’s eye.
According to Boxing Talk, Smakici said of the incident: “It was a clear punch so I don’t feel bad.”
Smakici was a recent addition to Fury’s team of sparring partners, which initially included former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia and undefeated Brit heavyweight Moses Itauma.
His joining the camp wasn’t a surprise given his experience sparring with top heavyweights, including Fury’s Brit rival Anthony Joshua.
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The slick southpaw was recently drafted in by Team AJ to help the former two-time unified heavyweight champion prepare for his ‘Day of Reckoning’ clash with Wallin.
And he was also one of Joshua’s chief sparring partners for his rematch with Usyk in August 2022.
Smakici, 33, posted a series of snaps of himself and AJ to his Instagram ahead of the bout with the accompanying caption: “Helping AJ for next fight.”
WBC heavyweight champ Fury will need at least “90 days” to recover from the horror cut before he can resume full sparring.
His cutman told Jorge Capetillo told Betway: “I would say it will take 90 days at least to recover from a cut in sparring.
“Hopefully the fight can happen in the summer because it’s such unfortunate news.
What does this mean for boxing?
The saddest thing is this didn’t really come as a surprise to the British boxing media, writes SunSport’s boxing correspondent Wally Downes.
Rumours of Fury struggling in sparring with cruiserweight King Jai Opetaia and teenage sensation Moses Itauma were rife.
It seemed unlikely that the Gypsy King would risk upsetting Turki Alalshikh and the Saudi paymaster.
But now the disaster has officially hit.
As recently as Friday afternoon, SunSport was being invited to Usyk’s secret European camp for a media day on February 6.
And there was the release of the mega-money promo that merged about eight Hollywood films and cost silly million pounds.
If it’s only a cut, there is the outside chance Fury can be back in a few weeks.
But we saw against Otto Wallin that he’s vulnerable to a bleed that needed months to recover.
When Fury was dropped and useless against Francis Ngannou in October – delaying the original undisputed decider – the money men behind the scenes created an incredible replacement with AJ vs Wallin.
And they could do something absolutely crazy to compensate now.
“The cut needs to heal really good and then Tyson can get back in action, back in training and get back in camp so it will be at least a few months for sure.
“Accidents can happen in sparring, and this is what has happened with Tyson so he will need time to heal.
“It will now reopen during the fight if they continued into the fight so now he needs time out to make sure it doesn’t open up with a first punch from Oleksandr Usyk.
“Obviously during camp, sparring sessions when getting ready for a fight of this calibre means you bring the best sparring partners you can and work hard in sparring but sometimes it’s very tough and things like this can happen.
“We always try to prevent that and make sure the fighter has a healthy camp, but this is part of the game.
“This is a fight that requires the best of the best with the best sparring partners.
“When there’s a cut happened by a punch, the opponent can get a TKO if the fight gets stopped so all of that stuff is important to have precaution.
“I know how hard Tyson was working for this fight. His work ethic, his discipline, he was working really hard like always and was so hungry for this fight.
“But these things happen, and cuts happen.”
Uysk, 37, has yet to break his silence on the postponement of the biggest fight of his career but is still training to fight on February 17.
But his manager has sensationally claimed Fury deliberately got injured so he could pull out of the fight.
Egis Klimas told Ring Magazine: “Fury is a f***ing coward who will do anything not to face Usyk.
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“And he asked his b***h to hit him with a frying pan in his brow.
“You can quote me word for word for that.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
