TYSON FURY has been offered sparring by ‘devastating’ puncher Raphael Akpejiori ahead of a fight with Anthony Joshua.
Fury, 32, and Joshua, 31, are still in the negotiation period with their proposed £200million undisputed title decider drawing closer.
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With preparation ramping up, heavyweight contender Akpejiori has urged the Gypsy King to fly to Miami for some sparring sessions.
The Nigerian – who has called out AJ before – also trains with Christian Thun, a camp member in Joshua’s last fight.
And Akpejiori reckons he is the perfect man to imitate the WBA, IBF and WBO champion for Fury.
He told Sky Sports: “Right now Miami is a hotbed for heavyweight boxing training.
“We have Christian here. We have Ivan Dychko here. At some point, we had Bakhodir Jalolov here. We had Filip Hrgovic here, Cassius Chaney here.
“If he wants to come to Miami to spar, he is guaranteed to have high-quality sparring. It would be a great place for him.
If he wants to fight someone with devastating knockout power and he wants to prep for that, then he is going to have to come spar with me and with Christian, or the other heavyweights that are here. Especially me.
“It’s a great place for him, he should consider it.”
Akpejiori’s gym-mate Thun was one of several sparring partners who were brought over to Joshua’s Sheffield training camp last year.
And he watched as AJ knocked out Kubrat Pulev in round nine to set up a Battle of Britain with Fury.
But Thun, 28, arrived back in America with a first hand experience of sharing the ring Joshua and shared the secrets with his gym partner.
Akpejiori, 30, said: “He sparred with Joshua, a few months ago before Joshua’s last fight. I spar with him as often as possible.
“We’ve talked about the guys who have sparred him (Thun), their tendencies, their weaknesses and their strengths.
“He said AJ was a very athletic guy, who throws punches in combinations.
“He’s not a guy who will just throw a one-two, he’s a guy who will throw one-two-three-four.
“He thinks very highly of AJ. Anthony Joshua is a guy that you would learn a lot from in sparring.
