I saw Anthony Joshua get 'dropped' in sparring by 6ft 9ins giant he beat at the Olympics
09/20/2024 02:00 AM
A new Anthony Joshua sparring story has come to light ahead of his upcoming clash with Daniel Dubois.
Joshua and Dubois‘ now famous spar has been the biggest talking point during the build-up to their IBF heavyweight title clash on Saturday night.
After turning over as a professional in 2017, rumours began to swirl around boxing circles that Dubois had either dropped or knocked out Joshua in sparring when he was just 18 years old.
Anthony Fowler, AJ’s former Team GB stablemate, recently told talkSPORT.com that Dubois turned Joshua’s ‘legs to jelly’ when they duked it out at the GB Performance Institute in Sheffield – but didn’t knock him down.
While Dubois wasn’t able to send AJ tumbling to the canvas, Fowler insists 6ft 9ins Kazakh Ivan Dychko did.
"I remember Ivan Dychko dropped Joshua,” he told talkSPORT.com.
“And David Price knocked Joshua down really heavily, he really hurt Joshua.
"That Kazakh lad [Dychko] dropped him once, but it was more of a flash knockdown. And Dubois hurt him as well.
"So I've seen him hurt three times but it is heavyweight boxing so it doesn't matter who you are, if you get hit flush on the chin you could go over."
The Price knockdown is a well-known sparring story that Joshua himself has since confirmed to be true.
But Fowler’s Dychko account is uncovered ground.
The Liverpudlian claims the spar took place just before the 2012 Olympics, where Joshua defeated Dychko on points en route to winning gold.
"That was in the amateurs, we were all sparring with the Kazakhstanis, and they were all wearing smaller gloves,” Fowler added.
"They were all wearing competition gloves, and we were all wearing big gloves.
"I sparred that Serik Sapiyev, and he done me in mate. He had a pair of 10oz gloves on and I had pillows on my hands.
"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.
"Not many people were there, it was just a spar but I remember it."
Joshua met Dychko in the Olympic semi-finals at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London.
AJ controlled proceedings behind the jab and bloodied Dychko’s nose in the third round.
In the end, the judges scored it 13-11 in his favour to send him sailing through to the final.
There, he met reigning Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle of Italy.
Cammarelle had stopped fellow Brit David Price in the Beijing 2008 semi-finals.
But wasn’t able to repeat his heroics against Joshua as he fell to a countback decision loss.
talkSPORT will bring you exclusive live commentary of the heavyweight clash at Wembley Stadium between Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois on Saturday, September 21. Download the talkSPORT app here.
