Introducing Agron Smakici, the sparring partner that caused that cut to Tyson Fury’s eye
Heavyweight southpaw Agron Smakici (20-2, 18KO) was present in Tyson Fury’s training camp for the past two weeks sharing three or four rounds with “The Gypsy King” on three or four occasions.
He has become famous overnight due to his punch that caused a cut above the WBC king’s right eye that subsequently cancelled the undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk when it was just two weeks away. Thankfully, it has already been rescheduled for May 18, but not before a media frenzy that catapulted the Croatian into the spotlight.
Speaking to iFL TV, he responded to Oscar Bevis’s question about how the past few days have been for him, “Yeah, unfortunately it looks like bad news because I cancelled the biggest fight, but it wasn’t on purpose.”
BBN discovered a host of facts all about the now infamous southpaw right here:
Agron Smakici
Agron Smakici was born June 2, 1990 in Zagreb, Croatia.
He was first trained by Ivan Sertic, who is in his 80s now. His current trainer is Jurgen Blin, who is a former German and European heavyweight champion, best known for fighting Muhammad Ali in 1971.
The 33-year-old is rated as the second-best heavyweight in Croatia, behind IBF #1 Filip Hrgovic.
In December 2023, he came over to the UK when he was drafted in as a sparring partner for Anthony Joshua ahead of his clash with Otto Wallin. This wasn’t the first time, he also provided southpaw sparring for AJ in the summer of 2022 before his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
He has also sparred with former unified cruiserweight word champion Murat Gassiev, and spent time in the Kronk Gym in Detroit, America.
He competed in Austrian Fight Challenge 2 in 2015, where he was disqualified in round two for an illegal upkick. He has also had one MMA fight, which he won by knockout.
He has 12 first-round KOs.
His only defeats have come at the hands of decent level competition. In 2019, he was knocked out in round by Kazakh Zhan Kossobutskiy, who has 18 KOs from 19 wins. Then, last year, in March 2024, he was stopped in round three by undefeated German Agit Kabayel, who defeated Arslanbek Makhmudov on the Joshua-Wallin undercard in Saudi in December.
He has challenged for the IBO Inter-Continental and European heavyweight titles, but has to become a champion.
He attended the Derek Chisora vs Kubrat Pulev 2 event at the O2 Arena in London in July 2022.
He counts Roy Jones Jr. as one of his inspirations in boxing.
Agron likes his fashion and fast cars; he owns a Mercedez AMG.
This is how he described his boxing style when speaking to BoxingScene back in 2017: “As a boxing style, I am different from him [Wladimir Klitschko]. I use more combinations. We can say that I am little more of an American style fighter. However, if you are fighting you need everything. It would be hard to reach success by doing only one thing that is good. My style attractive for the fans. I can knock out someone in the first or second round. You are going to have fun if you come to watch me.”
Read more details about the sparring session here: Tyson Fury sparring partner breaks silence