Boxing
'They pulled him out' - Fury recalls spar with then-amateur Joshua
Joshua vs. Prenga: Only on DAZN PPV - Saturday
Tyson Fury has claimed his rival Anthony Joshua could not handle a sparring session when they clashed in 2010.
The two men fight this weekend in what are being labelled as warm-up bouts before an all-British showdown later this year.
But wherever and whenever Fury and Joshua go head-to-head, this will not be the first time they have faced each other in the ring.
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16 years ago, Fury sparred Joshua, who was then an amateur, and in an interview with BoxingScene, he recalled the session.
“He was an amateur boxer, I was pro – maybe 10-0 or something," Fury said.
“There was a lot of people in the gym, so there was a lot of witnesses there.
“So yeah, he was just an amateur boxer really. I remember him putting his legs up like this, in the ropes, after about three rounds – turning away in the corner. I remember that quite vividly.
“But yeah, listen, he was just an amateur boxer at that time. He wasn’t like an Olympian or anything, so it wasn’t really: ‘Ooh, the sparring, what do I remember from it?’ I’ve sparred maybe 400 or 500 heavyweights, don’t remember very much from many of them really."
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Then came Fury's bold statement that Joshua, who would go on to win Olympic gold as an amateur before becoming a world champion, was pulled out of the sparring session.
"A vivid memory I do have of it, though, is I remember in about round three, he started putting his legs up – or round four, he started putting his knees up in the corner. I was like: ‘What the f—k is this?’
“And then they pulled him out and put somebody else in. That was that.”
With Fury facing Mariusz Wach on Friday night, 24 hours before Joshua takes on Kristian Prenga exclusively live on DAZN PPV and Ultimate Tier, there were some who hoped 'The Gypsy King' would make the trip from Thailand to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to face-off with 'AJ' inside the ring.
However, Fury quickly dashed these hopes, and instead stated he will be returning to his home on the Isle of Man following his fight with Wach.
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Watch Anthony Joshua versus Kristian Prenga on Saturday, July 25, as part of a huge 24 hours of boxing on DAZN PPV.
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