Import two .fig images so that I can work with them on matlab workspace

I am trying to overlay two figures using transparency. The problem is that the figures I have are saved in .fig so I can't read them and store them on the matlab workspace through imread function. I have tried saving the images in .jpg and everything works, the problem is how this images are saved.

Images in .jpg include also the x and y axis, which is something I don't want. Is there a way to import .fig figures and store them in a variable like imread would do? I have tried 'openfig', 'hgload' but they give me the pointer to the image and that's not what I'm looking for, and imread('image.fig', fig) which doesn't work. Am I using this last one incorrectly? Or is there another way?

Thanks