Anthony Joshua accepts Tyson Fury’s offer to train him ahead of Usyk rematch and wants to SPAR Brit rival in training
ANTHONY JOSHUA has accepted Tyson Fury’s offer to train him and even wants to SPAR his heavyweight rival.
The British pair were set to finally fight this summer, until Fury was ordered by an arbitrator to instead honour his contracted trilogy bout with Deontay Wilder.
He later scored a dramatic 11th round KO of Wilder, 36, but two weeks earlier Joshua, 32, was dethroned by Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury, 33, then offered to coach AJ, alongside his trainer SugarHill Stewards, for Joshua’s expected rematch with Usyk, 34, next year.
And the former champion has welcomed the Gypsy King into his camp and is even ready to share the ring with him behind closed doors.
Joshua iFL TV: “Yeah lovely mate. If he takes no money for it. I don’t know if he’s after a quid or two.
“He’s more than welcome to come through the doors, he can even spar with me as well. I need a coach that’s lived it, breathed it, so it’ll be perfect.
“That’ll be the easiest way to get him in the ring. I’ll set up a camera, Eddie [Hearn] will be there with a few cameras running it on Facebook or YouTube.”
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Joshua has only once sparred Fury, in a now-infamous 2010 session when he was still an amateur.
AJ then offered his services in sparring last year before the Gypsy King beat Wilder in their rematch, but it failed to materialise.
Joshua, a keen boxing historian, has no fears in welcoming Fury into his camp.
He said: “I’m seeing pictures with Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Archie Moore, Muhammad Ali, all sitting together, in each others training camps.
“I feel like I’ve been tucked away a lot. Come into my training camp, come and see what the heavyweight champion gets up to.
“Tyson can definitely come and watch me train, 100 per cent.
“Sparring ain’t fighting, so he can definitely come in, he’s more than welcome to step in to the gym and give me some tips.
“I’m not fighting him next anyway so he ain’t got nothing to worry about.”