Fury insulted me before I accidentally cut him – but it was NOT an elbow
THE boxer who cut Tyson Fury during sparring and canceled boxing's 'biggest fight' has spoken out and insisted it was an accident.
Fury was scheduled to compete in the first-ever four-belt heavyweight unification against Oleksandr Usyk on February 17 in Saudi Arabia.
But with just two weeks to go, disaster struck after he suffered a horrific cut during sparring that required more than ten stitches.
As a result, the fight was postponed until May 18 and images and footage of the doomed spar soon emerged.
It appeared Croatian heavyweight Agron Smakici landed an elbow to Fury's eye, causing the cut.
But Smakici has now spoken out to set the record straight from his point of view.
He told iFL TV: “Unfortunately it seems like bad news because I canceled the biggest fight. But it wasn't on purpose.”
Smakici revealed that the sparring session took place in Saudi Arabia in the afternoon and was kicked off by Irishman Thomas Carty.
He then jumped in as a new body for Fury, but after just three rounds came the now infamous blow.
But Smakici is convinced it was a punch and not an elbow.
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He said: “I'm telling you, it was a blow. I gave a blow, I know I feel the blow.
“But he pulled my head forward and maybe it reached the elbow. I didn't do it on purpose.”
Smakici was in camp with Fury for two weeks and only sparred with him for four rounds while training partners were changed.
And he did his best to emulate Usyk's famously elusive southpaw style, but he was met by Fury's trademark showmanship.
Smakici, 33, revealed: “He did a few tricks. He likes to say, 'You little sausage, let's go, come on.'
“He's that kind of guy. We had things like that when sparring. Talk like that.
“And in the third round it happened: the cut. Before that it was interesting sparring, it was very good sparring.”
Smakici has a boxing record of 20-2 and also made a successful MMA return last year to go 1-1 in the cage.
He has previously been used as a sparring partner for Anthony Joshua and hopes to be welcomed back into Fury's camp despite the bizarre injury.
Smakici said: “I would like to go back to the Fury camp and do the whole preparation with him.
“The conditioning, anything to push him and motivate him. And I'll put on some elbow pads or whatever you need!
“They were really cool, they said, 'Hey, it's happening. You did some great rounds, thank you very much.'”
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