Tyson Fury has made an offer to spar with Joe Joyce ahead of Joyce’s Sept. 23 rematch with Zhilei Zhang, saying he’s got “a secret” and knows how Joyce can win this time around.
“Joe, I saw you got the Zhang fight coming up again. If you want some proper southpaw sparring from someone who’s bigger, fatter, quicker, harder puncher — everything than Zhang, please come up to Morecambe and do some sparring with me,” he said in an Instagram post.
“It can only improve it. It’ll make it better. And trust me on this, I’ve got a secret for you and I know how to beat Zhang. Chop him down like an old oak tree. The offer’s there, Joe, get yourself down to Morecambe and do as many rounds as you want with myself. Get up there! Can’t say it any better than that.”
Fury also joked (we think) about the price of his services.
“I won’t charge you a lot, just 100 grand a round,” he said with a wink.
The 37-year-old Joyce (15-1, 14 KO) lost to the 40-year-old Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KO) on Apr. 15 in London, where the rematch will also take place, though this time at OVO Arena Wembley and not the Copper Box Arena.
Taking this all seriously, a chance to work with Fury (33-0-1, 24 KO) is interesting, but don’t forget that if he beats Zhang, Joyce would also immediately be in the mix once again to actually fight Fury for real. Fury has hyped up that idea in the past, and knows himself that a Joyce win puts the “Juggernaut” back in his immediate field of potential opponents.
So is it a chance for Fury to get in the ring, even in sparring, and check what Joyce has, more than it’s a chance for him to help Joyce improve? The nefarious mind of “The Gypsy King” at work again!
At the present, Fury, 34, is still mostly claiming nobody wants to fight him, following negotiations for an undisputed championship fight with Oleskandr Usyk crumbling this spring. Fury was last in the ring on Dec. 3 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, beating Derek Chisora in a totally unnecessary trilogy mismatch.