This is true even if the Gipsy King’s bout with Oleksandr Usyk was postponed since the little-known Croatian fighter accidentally injured his eye during training at the beginning of this month.
Parker’s bout with Zhilei Zhang is set for March 8, but the undisputed heavyweight world title match in Riyadh will now have to wait until May 18.
Zhang’s fight for the WBO “interim” title is scheduled to occur in Riyadh on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou.
To wrap off his training, Parker has now traveled to the Saudi city and enlisted the help of two of Fury’s previous sparring partners.
Smakici and the highly regarded British athlete Moses Itauma, who is 19 years old, are two of these.
Parker told White and Jordan on talkSPORT on Friday, “We spoke to Spencer Brown [Fury’s manager] and we spoke to Tyson Fury and they said these guys gave them the best work – Moses Itauma and Agron.”
And after giving Tyson the cut before the bout, Agron was still doing excellent work for him.
We so reasoned that we should retain them here, bring them in, and continue the excellent work they have been doing for Tyson Fury—instead of handing it to him.
“They’ve been giving us this work ever since we came out here.”
This recommendation makes it quite evident that Fury has no personal grudges against Smakici for the sparring mishap.
Commenting on conspiracy theories about the incident, Parker went on, “Everyone has an idea about how it happened or why it happened, but these things happen in boxing. Everyone has an opinion.”
It was an unusual mishap. He caught him with a punch or an elbow, I believe, during the most recent sparring session. These things do happen.
The fight has been rescheduled, which is fantastic to see.
“That will occur, but it will require some time to accomplish.”