WBO World Heavyweight Title Challenger Hughie Fury is preparing for his massive showdown with Champion Joe Parker by punching on a meat carcass like movie icon Rocky.

Fury has based himself at a spartan-style training camp at Lake Windermere for the big fight on Saturday 23rd September at the Manchester Arena and is using a local abattoir to help with his preparations.

The undefeated 22-year-old has been working on his power and combinations by pounding his fists into a 400lb carcass of beef which was made famous by Sylvester Stallone in the legendary film franchise.

In the first movie, unknown Philadelphian fighter Rocky gets a million-to-one shot at the World Heavyweight Champion Apollo Creed and prepares for his fight by punching meat in an abattoir.

The Manchester hero has been training spartan-style at his training camp at Lake Windermere with arduous mountain runs, log chopping and swimming in freezing lakes with father and trainer Peter watching on and believes this adds another dimension to his training.

“I love different ways of training to keep things fresh and new and when the owner of the abattoir saw us training in the hills we ended up talking and he mentioned about Rocky punching the meat and said I could come and do the same at his place,” Said Fury.

“I jumped at the chance because, one, the carcass of meat weighs nearly 400 pounds and that is one heavy ‘punch bag’ to slam punches into. Two, its makes a much better sound when the fist connects with the meat, just like in a fight and, three, Rocky is one of my favourite all time movies so to do that myself was a bit of thrill,”

“I’m preparing like never before for this fight and pushing myself to the limits and beyond. There’s no way Parker is leaving Manchester with that World title. I will everything to make sure that belt stays here with me.”

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