After the shock of Friday's postponement of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk world heavyeight championship fight wore off, fans began wondering who the sparring partner was that landed the punch that cut Fury over the right eye. The answer to that question is Agron Smakici, a 6'6" Croatian with a 20-2 record. Smakici is a southpaw, like Usyk, so Fury brought him into camp for sparring. Grainy footage of Smakici's punch surfaced on social media on Friday, and it showed Smakici landing an uppercut that caught Fury just underneath his headguard. Fury turned away quickly and later posted a photo showing a short but wide gash in the same spot that Otto Wallin cut him in 2019.  When asked if he regretted anything, Smakici told a third party via text message that, "it was a clear punch so I don't feel bad."

Fury said that the injury was caused by an elbow (not an easy thing to land on someone as tall as the 6'8" Fury) but Smakici denied that, saying "Fury says a lot of things but he knows how the sparring was with me." 

Although not that well known outside of Europe yet, this incident will probably put some respect on Smakici's name. His two professional losses came against Zhan Kossobutskiy and Agit Kabayel. In the latter fight, which took place in March of last year, Smakici knocked Kabayel to the canvas. Smakici tried to finish Kabayel off, but expended too much energy in doing so and wound up gassing out in third round. Kabayel is currently riding high off a stoppage win against Arslanbek Makhmudov in Saudi Arabia in December.