After declaring that Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars “eats at him”, the comedian’s brother Kenny is now challenging the actor to fight him.
According to TMZ, Kenny has “just signed a deal with Celebrity Boxing founder Damon Feldman for a fight this summer down in Florida,” adding that while he doesn’t have an opponent, he’s calling out the King Richard star.
“Kenny says the size difference wouldn’t be an issue for him … even though Will’s taller and once played Muhammad Ali on the big screen … he’s confident he could score a victory over the Oscar-winner,” the publication read.
In a recent interview with The Los Angeles Times, Kenny discussed how the infamous slap has continued to affect him since it happened.
“It eats at me watching it over and over again because you’ve seen a loved one being attacked and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said.
After the Oscars, Smith apologised on social media for his actions and resigned from the Academy. That’s not enough for Kenny though. “I might have looked at it differently had he initially apologised when he got on the stage and cried and accepted the award, but he didn’t, so, right there that tells me that it is something else,” he said.
He added that he refused to accept Smith’s apology. “I don’t think it was genuine,” he insisted. “I think his publicist and the people that work under him probably advised him to do that.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Kenny also called for the Academy to take back the Oscar Smith received for King Richard, as well as bar him from attending any future Oscars ceremonies.
He also said he doesn’t believe that Chris knew about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia. “The joke was funny,” he said. “It wasn’t hilarious funny, but I know that if he knew that she had alopecia… he wouldn’t have made a joke about that. But he didn’t know.”
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