Abimbola Osundairo, a Nigerian living in the United States, has stated that American actor Jussie Smollett trained him for when he wanted to ask him and his brother Ola Osundairo to beat him up.
In a recent interview, the professional boxer described how the concept came to be with media personality Chude Jideonwo. He revealed that he had been grooming Smollett in advance, and that, contrary to how the public saw the incident, Smollett had urged him and his brother to rough him up. “I can 100% say that it was grooming and that he was trying to groom me for it,” he stated.
Osundairo brought up an event that happened at Smollet’s house, where Smollet was purportedly trying to convince him to hire a male masseur. Osundairo quickly declined the service because he thought there might be foul play.
“I was with in his house which has two bedrooms and he had hired a male masseuse and had paid for two of us,” he said. “And I assured him I was okay because I knew you guys were up to something else and wanted to get something done. I refuse to fall into that, then. As you can see from the released communications, I said, “No, I don’t want to do it.” However, sometimes people choose not to look at that. They decided to think that because I was hanging out with a gay man, something had happened between us.”
In his account of the attack incident, Osundairo also said that Smollett’s request was unclear, even though he and the actor had been friends for a long time.
“He was a reliable companion. After three or four years of friendship, he confided in me and trusted me, so it was strange when he asked me to beat him up at random. He said, “I want you to beat me up,” while we were in his car. No one ever says that. He said to Jideonwo, “We were smoking weed, and I thought maybe he was high.”
“Then he says it again, explains what he wants me to do, and says, ‘I’d need someone to help me do it,'” he went on. I said, “Hell yeah, my brother would do it,” when he asked if my brother would assist. And that’s how it came to pass. Since it wasn’t carefully thought out, everything happened quickly. He informed us on January 26th, and we carried out the fictitious attack on January 29th.”
Osundairo also out that the actor never disclosed to him or his brother the precise reason behind his desire for physical abuse. However, he mentioned that the movie studio was not treating the threat seriously enough and brought up a threatening letter he had once received that contained derogatory remarks and threats of murder.
“I agreed to it because my brother and I are professional actors and boxers,” Osundairo stated in response to a question about why he accepted the setup. Thus, in acting, who you know matters. We therefore believed that hanging out with him would help us advance in that field. to win his favor.”
Following a nine-hour jury trial in 2021, which included six men and six women, Smollet was charged with disorderly behavior and false criminal report, both of which are Class 4 felonies that carry a maximum sentence of three years in jail and a fine of $25,000.