Ric Flair Claims Will Smith And Chris Rock Incident Was Fake On Mike Tyson Podcast

WWE legend Ric Flair believes the Will Smith and Chris Rock bust-up at the Oscars was staged.

Speaking to boxing icon Mike Tyson on his podcast Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson, Flair took aim at the incident and reckons it should have been much more intense.

Will Smith infamously took to the stage during the Oscars to confront Chris Rock after Rock made a GI Jane joke in reference to his wife’s alopecia. 

Smith proceeded to slap Rock right across his face in what was one of the most surprising public altercations in recent memory.

As the crowd nervously laughed, Smith responded, saying: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth.”

The slap and the subsequent response from both Chris Rock and Will Smith lead to a frenzy of rumours that the incident was staged. 

Some conspiracy theorists even claimed that Rock was wearing a pad on his cheek in preparation for the slap. 

Meanwhile, a body language expert, nicknamed Darren Stanton, believed that Smith simply could not have faked that level of emotion. 

Well, Flair, who has a history of making the staged seem real, chimed in on the debate.

On the podcast, he said: “I didn’t think it was real."

With the former heavyweight champion Tyson tending to side with Flair, saying: “If Ric says it’s a fake, then it’s a fake.”

The pair went on to claim that if Smith was really that fired up about the joke geared towards his wife, he would have handed Rock some heavier blows.

Flair said: “I can speak for myself, and I’m pretty sure I’m speaking for Mike.

"If I didn’t like a remark, for any reason whatsoever, that somebody said about my wife, I would be punching them — not slapping them."

Tyson added: “It would be more than one punch, too.”

Flair, the master of working the crowd, would reiterate his belief that the incident was a play at pulling one over the Oscar audience and viewers at home.

He would later add: “When you’re mad at someone, you don’t slap him, you punch him."

Tyson urged Will Smith to eat some of his ‘Mike Bites’ edibles - a fitting cannabis brand that Mike dropped last month and is a range of marijuana edibles shaped like ears. 

Featured Image Credit: MediaPunch Inc / Alamy. Twitter / Hotboxin' With Mike Tyson

Topics: Mike Tyson, Wrestlemania, Australia

Jayden Collins

Jayden Collins is a Journalist at SPORTbible. He has worked across multiple media platforms in areas such as sport, music, pop culture, entertainment and politics. He is part of the editorial team for LADbible Australia.