Kubrat Pulev’s co-promoter Ivaylo Gotzev has accused Anthony Joshua of being ‘unprepared’ for his fight against the Bulgarian predicting a repeat of the Brit’s shock defeat by Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
Joshua will defend his WBA, WBO and IBF world world titles at Wembley Arena on Saturday, knowing a victory will keep him on track for an undisputed heavyweight clash with WBC champion Tyson Fury next year.
But Pulev is looking to cause an upset and his co-promoter believes Joshua’s sparring partners are not up to the standard required to prepare him for the experienced 39-year-old.
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Speaking to Marc Gatford via the MyBettingSites.co.uk blog’, Gotzev said: “The young British lions are not the well seasoned lion Kubrat is.
“They aren’t the type of sparring AJ needs because Kubrat is not just a well experienced fighter; he has ring generalship, footwork and boxing ability, he has so much more than people realise.
“There is no substitute for experience and AJ is going to learn that. The fine little details like sparring make all the difference.
“Trevor Bryant, fine, he’s good, but he doesn’t punch half as hard as Pulev – he doesn’t have the manpower.
“Bryant is a small heavyweight who likes to dance around. This fight is going to be a battle he’s unprepared for.
“We’re going to repeat what happened in Madison Square Garden when AJ was caught in the headlights.”
Joshua’s main sparring partners for his camp have been Martin Bakole, Bryant Jennings, Hosea Stewart, Gerald Washington, Delicious Orie, David Adeleye, Christian Thun, Frazer Clarke, Peter Kadiru and Fabio Wardley.
Camp manager David Ghansa told Sportsmail there had been others they had wanted to recruit but were unable to do so because of coronavirus restrictions.
He said they have taken the same approach they did for the second fight with Ruiz Jr and have worked to bring in partners with a similar style to Pulev.
“We have done the same as the Ruiz camp in that we have brought in sparring partners with similar styles to Pulev’s,” Ghansa said.
“We’ve watched him and dissected his game and looked at everything he does well. We know he has a good jab so instead of finding a carbon copy of Pulev we looked at who are the best jabbers around and who has got a similar jab to his.”
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