Anthony Joshua Reveals Sparring With Tyson Fury For Rolex Watch In 2010

While the boxing world remains highly anticipated for an Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury showdown, it turns out the pair have locked horns already.

That’s according to unified heavyweight champion Joshua who revealed that he had sparred with the WBC king in 2010 back when he was an amateur.

“This was early on when I was an amateur and I didn’t know who Tyson was,” Joshua told Sky Sports (via The Sun). “I was reading in Boxing News he was going around London gyms asking if anyone knocks him out they get to keep his Rolex.

“Me and him had a straight war. We both have heart. I didn’t get to knock him out. He said afterwards ‘Watch out for this kid, he will be champion of the world one day’. And he got his prediction right.”

10 years on and the duo could compete in what would undoubtedly be the biggest heavyweight fight, at least in recent years.

Joshua won back his WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles following his unanimous decision win over Andy Ruiz Jr. in December. Fury, meanwhile, became the WBC champion after handing Deontay Wilder his first-ever defeat when he TKO’d him back in February.

A title unification fight was what everyone wanted soon after; however, Wilder invoked his rematch clause with the trilogy now set for October. Joshua, meanwhile, was set to face Kubrat Pulev in June.

However, if the coronavirus pandemic continues throughout the summer, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to explore the option of making Wilder wait and just go ahead with the title unification fight:

“I think when you look at AJ, I think very much it’s a thought that’s crossed my mind. We’ve got June 20 as a pencilled date for Anthony Joshua,” Hearn said. “We will make a statement potentially this week, or maybe early next week, that’s likely to be delayed. I think that’s pretty straightforward and obvious. Hopefully until the end of July.

“”But if it starts kicking on beyond that, then you get to a situation where if Joshua is only going to box once this year, he would very much like that to be against Tyson Fury. The situation is a little bit out of our hands in that, if Bob Arum and Al Haymon can talk and make Deontay Wilder wait a little bit, we would absolutely love to go into that fight next.”””

Would you like to see Joshua vs. Fury next?