Anthony Joshua suffered a petite cut while sparring at the hands of children ahead of his IBF heavyweight world title fight with fellow Briton Daniel Dubois. The two-time world champion, 34, stepped into the squared circle to jokingly spar with some of the youngsters at his amateur gym, Finchley ABC.
“Which one of you cut me? Was it you?” Joshua smiled, and the video shows a noticeable cut on his cheek. One of the children confessed and earned Joshua’s respect.
AJ will look to become a three-time world champion on September 21 at Wembley Stadium against Dubois, who received the belt after Oleksandr Usyk’s resignation. Tensions threatened to peak as AJ and Dubois came face to face, with the former threatening to throw a chair in his rival’s face, claiming he was being disrespectful.
The Brits have also been close in sparring before, with Dubois leaving his mark. Joshua revealed that his rival Dubois “smashed” him, but didn’t knock him out, in sparring a few years ago. “I knew Daniel from Team GB,” Joshua said.
“I had just turned pro but I stayed on the GB squad. I was still training there so we sparred. Good sparring. All that talk you’re trying to get at, he just blew me away with a good shot. But I was on my feet.
“I don’t know where this whole narrative came from that someone turned off my delicate. There were a ton of people at the gym that day. And they came out and said nothing happened.”
Joshua added: “Listen, people say what they say. In my case, it’s always been the inch that made the mile, but it’s all good. I’m not saying he has a chance to do it on September 21st, because sometimes what you’re talking about comes to pass, but I’m not going to let that happen and I’m going to show you how good I am, whether it’s sparring in the ring or fighting in the ring, I’m not going to let anyone manipulate me or try to take me down. No way.
Dubois will be looking to say goodbye to Joshua later this year in order to keep a close eye on Usyk’s rematch with Tyson Fury. Dubois was beaten by Usyk last year but had a good showing against the Ukrainian, unfortunately failing to register a knockdown as it was deemed too low. Like Joshua, Dubois isn’t drawn back to his past in previous sparring sessions.
“I don’t want to talk about not sparring or anything like that,” Dubois said. “This happened seven years ago and honestly, I don’t remember it. I’m not here to spar him, I’m here to fight him. So let’s stick to the fight.”
“I will say it was great to be there and share that experience with these guys who were at the top of their game. Another thing, speaking of sparring, people have mentioned sparring with me and it didn’t work out, so I don’t want bad luck to get to me!”