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BLOOD AND CUTS
‘I can hit hard and he doesn’t blink’ – Inside the bloody sparring session that torpedoed Tyson Fury’s fight with Usyk
Fury's sparring partner who cut the Gypsy King has revealed why he thinks the accident happened
BOXING usually finds a way to shoot itself in the foot but humping itself in the backside is a new one!
It could only be down to master-of-mischief Tyson Fury and his playground antics of gyrating into a sparring partner sparking the spicy exchange that led to the cut that forced the undisputed decider with Oleksandr Usyk fight to be postponed AGAIN.
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First, there were 18 months of painful negotiations and rows over rematches and percentages, that collapsed a couple of plans.
Then the woeful October 23 display from the WBC king against boxing debutant Francis Ngannou caused the fight to be pushed back from December 23 to February 17.
And then we learned on Friday, February 2 that the undefeated 35-year-old Gypsy King had suffered a cut over his right eye in a sparring session with Agron Smakici, that needed 14 stitches and forced the bout to go back again to February 17.
Wild and far-fetched conspiracy theories about the cut surrounded the sport, doubters and critics even ridiculously suggested Fury had inflicted the wound on himself in a bid to avoid Ukraine’s 35-year-old WBA, IBF and WBO boss.
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But SunSport can now reveal it was more of a You’ve Been Framed episode than a Soviet spy novel, that led to the cut that floored the first undisputed fight since 1999.
Smakici, the 33-year-old southpaw heavyweight regularly headhunted to mimic the fighting style of Usyk for the likes of Anthony Joshua, became unwittingly the most infamous man in boxing.
And he revealed that being on the receiving end of a playful romp from the 6ft 9in Morecambe showman was a shock he didn’t fancy, but that the subsequent cut was not the result of a revenge attack.
When asked if he could confirm the whisper that Fury had copied the move made infamous among boxing fans by Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana in 2013, he told us: “I have watched the Broner and Maidana fight, I know what happened.
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“He tried to do the Broner to me and that was not OK with me.
“I came to help him and we didn’t really know each other.
New footage appears to show moment Tyson Fury was cut by an ELBOW causing Oleksandr Usyk fight to be scrapped
“I am not a young kid, I am 33 and he is 35, we are the same ages.
“Yes he is the champion but I could also become a champion and I can hit.
"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."
Smakici hopes he ended on great terms with Fury and has now planned to help his best pal Joseph Parker prepare for his March 8 shootout with another leftie giant in Zhilei Zhang.
But he has one personal opinion on why the cereal winner looked a bit stale in the unusually timed final sparring session of his Riyadh camp.
“I felt the spar was too early,” he said. “That’s just my opinion.
“We had been sparring in the evenings, around 8-9pm, to be ready for the fight. But suddenly we were sparring at 12o'clock and still having breakfast at 11am.
“The day before we had done hard sparring and the day before that, Wednesday, we had done strength training, conditioning and circuits. So there was a lot happening with our body and minds.
“It was early sparring, at late notice, we were in the middle of breakfast when we had to get ready.
“But Fury was motivated, he said he wanted 12 rounds, he did three with Thomas Carty and then I came in.
“He made jokes like, 'Let’s go, little sausage.’ But he was very motivated, dancing in the ring and using his reach a lot.
“I got in and used my style, it was physical, and we did some wrestling and good combinations.
"Then the cut happened because we were tired.
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“I threw the left hook but my head was also going forward because he was pulling it, it was a bit like dirty boxing.”
Boxing has a horrible habit of rewarding notoriety rather than quality.
Smakici could laud himself as the man who floored the first undisputed fight in 25 years or boast about his success with AJ.
But - after hundreds of rounds with Joshua and two weeks working with Fury - that is the absolute last thing he wants to do.
He explained: “In sparring you sometimes have a bad day, or you try something new and when you’re sparring you change and rotate your partners a lot.
“I might only do three rounds and then another guy does three and another does four, and Fury does all of them, it’s not equal or fair.
“So I would never say or think I got the better of Fury because he is doing all of the rounds and we’re getting lots more rest.
“Fury was very good in some spars and sometimes he was bad. But that is a training camp and that is sparring.
“I am sure in the fight you will see the real Fury. He has been a professional fighter for a long time and has done some of the biggest fights, he has proven himself.
“I have never said anything bad about him. He is a good person, he trains with his son and family, they are good people.
“Fury is just focussed on the fight and I think he will put on a spectacular performance.
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“The rest is just rumours, Tyson has a good chin, he can take a punch. He has shown that in his fights and I can say it because I can hit hard and he doesn’t blink.
"It was a special camp, just stepping in with Fury was special, because he is a legend for what he has done."
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