Last week, former unified world champion Tyson Fury (25-0, 18 KOs) offered his services as a sparring partner to WBO champ Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs), who is currently preparing for a high stakes unification with WBA, IBF, IBO champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs).
Parker and Joshua will collide on March 31 at Principality in Cardiff, Wales.
Fury is preparing for his own comeback, on a date in April.
Fury has been out of the ring since November 2015, when he shockingly outboxed Wladimir Klitschko to capture the WBO, IBO, IBF, WBA world titles.
Between inactivity and mental health issues, Fury would lose all of his world titles and his license to box.
While Parker appreciates the offer, he explains that Fury is not the right sparring partner - physically and stylistically - to prepare for Joshua.
Fury is very tall, moves very well around the ring and likes to box - while Joshua is wider and muscular, comes forward throwing hard punches and rarely moves around the ring.
"Tyson Fury's a great guy, but with all due respect to him, I don't think it's the right person to spar because he moves around well for a big guy and he doesn't come forward, and he's a lot taller," Parker told Radio Live.
"So I think Kev [trainer Kevin Barry] and our team have done some research and we found guys that we think that doesn't have everything Joshua has, but each of them have bits that we can see or help us prepare for what he brings.
"We want guys to come forward and we can just smash them, and for them to throw everything at us - the kitchen sink - and just try and knock us out. But with Fury, as the fighter he is, he's a smart fighter who doesn't stand there, who doesn't absorb a lot of punches and likes to move."
2023-10-20 09:59:27
