Tyson Fury has unveiled three of his sparring partners in camp with him as he prepares to face Anthony Joshua in December, and there are some recognizable faces.
After nearly a decade of call-outs and near-moments, the fight was finally made in April and the pair will meet in a blockbuster showdown at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to be shown on Netflix.
To help him prepare for this career-defining fight, Fury has enlisted the services of two very well-known heavyweights and one lesser-known but equally talented fighter.
Fury reveals his sparring partners
In an AI re-stylized photo of a previous post on his Instagram, Fury can be seen clad in traditional Scottish warrior clothing, alongside his coach Sugarhill Steward and his sparring partners Jarrell Miller, Joe Joyce and Aleksei Dronov.
Joyce was a standout as an amateur, winning an Olympic silver medal in 2016 before turning professional as a solid pick for a future world title challenger. Joyce is perhaps most well-known for handing current WBO champion Daniel Dubois the first loss of his career and for his knockout win over Joseph Parker
Things dried up for him after this when he went on a run of poor form, losing to Zhilei Zhang twice as well as Filip Hrgovic and Derek Chisora.
Miller is a figure of controversy in boxing, stemming from his previous drug test failures, most notably when he was supposed to fight Anthony Joshua in 2019, which led to Andy Ruiz stepping in on late notice.
The American returned to the limelight after suffering a late stoppage defeat to Dubois, before fighting to a stalemate with Andy Ruiz the following year.
The lesser-known of the three, Dronov, is nothing to take lightly. The Russian is a youth Olympics and youth world championships gold medallist and now sits at 12-0 professionally, with 10 wins by knockout.
Who is the favorite for Fury vs Joshua?
The answer to this question has changed more than a few times, but we can only judge a fighter by their last performance, and if that is the metric, then you have to give it to Fury.
The last fight of Fury's that people were actually able to watch was his unanimous points decision victory over Arslanbek Makhmudov in April, where he danced and jabbed his way to a comfortable victory against a shockingly immobile Makhmudov.
Fury still showed punch resistance, taking the best the Russian could throw at him and showing an impressive engine. The former champion did fight again against Mariusz Wach behind closed doors, so it is a moot point to try to theorize about the performance, but he did get the aging heavyweight stalwart out of there within seven rounds.
Joshua, on the other hand, put on a much more concerning performance, getting dropped twice in the first round by a relative unknown in Kristian Prenga, giving more credence to the questions surrounding his dwindling punch resistance after years of punishment. However, there are signs of encouragement that should not be ignored. Joshua did pick himself up off the canvas twice and came back the very next round to flatten his Albanian opponent.
Add us as a preferred source on Google