Tyson Fury has claimed Anthony Joshua was ‘pulled out’ of their sparring session in 2010, despite his past suggestion that “AJ” put a ‘beating’ on him.
This week, the two British heavyweights will box in warm-up fights for their own long-awaited clash. Fury will face Mariusz Wach in Thailand on Friday, before Joshua fights Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Joshua vs Fury is signed and is expected to take place in late 2026, with London’s Wembley Stadium a likely venue in November – if ring walks take place at 2am local time, according to Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh.
Yet it would not be the first time Joshua, 36, and Fury, 37, have shared a ring. In 2010, Fury sparred Joshua and later said: “He came at me for three rounds, and he gave me a beating; I’m not going to deny it.”
Now, however, Fury has told Pro Box TV that he remembers“not a lot really”. “He was an amateur boxer, I was pro – maybe 10-0 or something.
“So yeah, there wasn’t much to think… 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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“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*** is this?’
“And then they pulled him out and put somebody else in. That was that.”
Joshua would go on to win Olympic gold in 2012, before he and Fury became two-time world heavyweight champions as pros, with each man’s second reign coming to an end at the hands of Oleksandr Usyk.
The unbeaten Ukrainian dethroned Joshua in 2021, in the first of two points wins over AJ. Then in 2024, he outpointed Fury twice, becoming undisputed heavyweight champion with the first of those victories.
Last time out, Fury outpointed Arslanbekh Makhmudov in April, as the Briton ended his fifth retirement from boxing. That result followed Joshua’s December win over YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, whom AJ stopped in six rounds.
Joshua beat Paul 10 days before surviving a fatal car crash in Nigeria, which claimed the lives of two of his friends.
