Tyson Fury brings in Joe Joyce as sparring partner for Anthony Joshua fight

Joyce was Joshua's Team GB amateur teammate and sparred with him regularly in Sheffield, while Joshua has brought back Fury's former trainer Ben Davison before the Cardiff fight on 11 December.

By Combat Sports UK Staff · Published Mon 12 Oct, 13:39 UK · AI-assisted reporting

Tyson Fury at ringside in Laval, Canada, in 2017 — Photo: Mike DiDomizio / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Joe Joyce has joined Tyson Fury's training camp as a sparring partner for the Anthony Joshua fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Friday 11 December.

Joyce brings first-hand knowledge of Joshua. The pair were Team GB amateur teammates who sparred regularly at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Joshua, for his part, is working again with Ben Davison, who used to train Fury, and he has said he will stop Fury inside 10 rounds.

Joyce, 41, held the WBO interim heavyweight title from 2022 to 2023 and was once seen as a future world champion after beating Daniel Dubois in the 10th round in 2020 and knocking out Joseph Parker in the 11th in 2022. Dubois has since beaten Joshua, and Parker is another former Joshua opponent.

His standing fell after two stoppage defeats to Zhilei Zhang in 2023, and he has lost five of his last six fights. He has said he will not retire. He recently said on Daily Mail Boxing's The Hook that he has been found to be neurodivergent, in response to claims that he is "slow" or "punchy".

Fury and Joshua, both two-time world heavyweight champions, have been linked for more than a decade, and both are now in camp after the launch press conference. The Principality Stadium is all but sold out, and the ring walks are planned for around 1am UK time on Saturday 12 December. The fight is live on Netflix; UK times are on our Fury vs Joshua page.