Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois: What happened when they sparred, and what does it mean for the fight?

16 September 2024, 15:06 | Updated: 18 September 2024, 06:17

“I could say a lot, but I won’t...” What happened when Anthony Joshua sparred Daniel Dubois?

Joshua and Dubois will fight in earnest on Saturday, in front of more than 90,000 people at Wembley stadium, live on Sky Sports Box Office.

But the Riyadh Season: Joshua vs Dubois event won't be the first time they have traded punches.

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The pair sparred when Dubois was a teenager breaking onto the GB squad and Joshua, an Olympic champion and top pro, was training at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Rumours would begin to emanate from the gym, especially when Dubois was readying to make his professional debut, that something had happened when he sparred Joshua. That Dubois managed to rock or even floor Joshua.

Joe Joyce and Frazer Clarke, when they were GB super-heavyweights, were two of Joshua's most regular sparring partners around that time.

Neither though would answer whether Dubois had enjoyed that kind of success against AJ.

"I'm not going to divulge that. You've got to wait and see. I don't like when people start doing that. That's practice and that should be private. A code of honour, it's breaking that," Joyce told Sky Sports.

"Sparring is sparring. A fight is a fight. That was a long time ago. They've both come on a lot since then. They've had their different paths and journeys, upsets, that sort of thing."

Frazer said: "I could say a lot, but I won't. Always competitive spars. AJ was always that little bit ahead, but I feel Daniel's closed the gap."

An incident could have happened in sparring. Romford heavyweight Johnny Fisher knows how effective Dubois can be in the gym first hand. "I can imagine there were some firefights there because we know how powerful Joshua is and Dubois certainly brings the heat," he told Sky Sports.

"I've heard the rumours like everyone else. But sparring is sparring. I know it's a cliché, it's been said a thousand times but sometimes you're going into a spar and your coach is telling you to work on these certain things or you might have trained really hard the day before or you're fresher. Sparring can be read into too much."

WBA No 1 contender Martin Bakole, who has sparred both Joshua and Dubois, agreed. "In sparring anything can happen," he said. "When you got to spar Tyson Fury or Joshua, it's not only you, it's maybe two or three people [in the session] so they're sparring different guys.

"If he was in with someone maybe like me, and I give him a hard time and you come in still fresh, you can land a beautiful punch. It can happen to everyone."

But Bakole still gave a scathing assessment of Dubois ahead of his fight with Joshua.

"He doesn't have the heart, that's a big problem," Bakole said of Dubois. "He's big, strong and comes to fight, but doesn't have the heart. As soon as you move a lot, touch him a lot, he will give up. If you saw Dubois go back on the back foot, just understand he's out."

Ahead of Saturday's fight even Dubois has not been looking to provide further stories for the rumour mill.

Dubois said: "I don't want to talk about no sparring or none of that. It happened seven years ago, and to be honest, I can't remember that."

We know that he at least landed a meaningful punch. Joshua himself said: "He just cracked me with a good shot. But I stood on my feet.

"I don't know where this whole narrative that someone turned my lights off came from.

"People say what they say. And with me, there's always been an inch that makes a mile, but it's all good."

Isolating one incident is less instructive than considering what their sparring as a whole means for their upcoming fight. The signs all promise excitement.

"I've seen them spar many times in Sheffield," London super-lightweight Ohara Davies told Sky Sports. "Daniel knows AJ from what he's experienced against him sparring and their spars were always even.

"I never saw AJ get knocked down or get hurt and I never saw Daniel Dubois get knocked down or hurt either.

"Maybe [AJ] did, but not when I was there. I never saw anything like that. And even when I was there I didn't hear anything like that."

But he added: "Especially with no headguards and they've got smaller gloves, we're in for a good fight."

Paul Walmsley, a former GB coach who was present for much of their sparring, thinks it does indicate how the fight itself will play out.

"What I recall is that Joshua got the better of it," Walmsley said. "He was on the squad longer, he was more mobile, kept Daniel at long range. All the spars seemed to have a similar pattern. Daniel was a bit flat-footed. He seems to be moving a lot more now I've noticed but then he was bit more flat-footed. Joshua could get in and out, get around him pretty easily there."

Josh Kelly, who will fight Ishmael Davis on the Wembley Stadium undercard, was a GB boxer at the time and he always enjoyed watching the two spar.

"I think Joshua's got the height and length advantage. That straight one-two and the left hook-back hand is fast and hard," he told Sky Sports.

"If Daniel's got a bit more head movement he could get work past him but I don't know if he does.

"If Dubois can close distance get off the line and land the right hand, start trying to break him down with the jab, it could change things up.

"The power on these blokes is just different. "These guys are just built different. So anyone can get knocked out in sparring.

"I'm sat there with my popcorn thinking one of these guys is going to go soon."

Not that he actually witnessed that. "There were [rumours] but I never saw it," he said. "Sparring's sparring. Anyone can be dropped when you're a heavyweight. They all punch like absolute monsters."

He is though expecting to see a knockout on Saturday. "It can't go the distance," he said simply.

"That can't go the distance."

Anthony Joshua's heavyweight showdown with Daniel Dubois takes place on Saturday September 21 live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book Joshua v Dubois now!

(c) Sky Sports 2024: Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois: What happened when they sparred, and what does it mean for the fight?