With Anthony Joshua’s next fight, a huge domestic clash against Daniel Dubois for the title of three-time world champion, getting ever-closer, there’s been more and more discussion around AJ’s chin, and of old sparring stories.
Many, of course, bring up the sparring stories between AJ and Dubois, with witnesses saying Dubois caught Anthony Joshua with a good shot and wobbled him. One such witness was fellow Team GB boxer, Anthony Fowler. Fowler told TalkSport that in that spar, Dubois turned AJ’s ‘legs to jelly’ and could’ve finished him off but didn’t. This was, however, back in 2017, and both fighters have come a long way in the seven years since.
Anthony Joshua Dropped by Ivan Dychko
As reported by TalkSport’s George Glinski, Anthony Fowler has now also commented on another occasion where AJ has been hurt, suggesting Kazakh boxer Ivan Dychko dropped Anthony Joshua, in what he described as ‘more of a flash knockdown’. The spar allegedly took place before the 2012 Olympics, which saw Joshua defeat Dychko in the semi-finals.
‘It was sparring before the Olympics. Joshua was loading up and I think he got caught with a one-two and it was a flash knockdown’.
The Liverpudlian now-retired boxer did, however, clarify that in the build-up for the Olympics, Team GB were ‘all sparring Kazakhstanis’ but that ‘They were all wearing competition gloves, and we were all wearing big gloves’.
Fowler also spoke on the infamous story of David Price dropping Joshua, saying Price ‘knocked Joshua down really heavily, he really hurt Joshua’. Though this again, was many years ago.
Daniel Dubois himself was the victim of sparring rumours after stories of his unsuccessful spar against Filip Hrgovic were mentioned in the build-up to their fight. Though Dubois acknowledged the truth in these stories, ultimately it did not matter as Dubois went on to stop ‘El Animal’.
Both fighters have developed a great deal since their spar, with Anthony Joshua on a recent run of good form, stopping Ngannou, Wallin, and Helenius in his last three fights, two of which saw his new partnership with Ben Davison.
Dubois has also reinvented himself lately, with two impressive stoppage wins over Jarrell Miller and Filip Hrgovic since his loss to Oleksandr Usyk in Poland.
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