A great fight can always appear better with a certain narrative attached and the one stuck on Anthony Joshua vs. Daniel Dubois has largely been focused on their sparring sessions.
A younger version of Dubois would often spar with Joshua when the latter was starting his ascent up the heavyweight rankings, and they would take place in Sheffield when Joshua was trained by Robert McCracken.
For many years, unfounded rumours would speculate that Dubois would cause Joshua trouble in these spars, but these stories remained unconfirmed.
In a recent interview with my Talksport , Anthony Fowler, a former teammate at Team GB of Dubois and Joshua, gave his version of what occurred.
"They were just sparring normally. Dubois was really young, so he wasn't really trying to win the rounds. I wouldn't say he was in survival mode, but he wouldn't take many risks,” said Fowler
"He was very cagey sparring Joshua. Obviously, Joshua was the main man on the team, so he was always quite wary, but he always punched really hard.
"Joshua must have been a little clumsy sparring him and he got caught with a short left hook and Joshua's legs completely went.
"Dubois could have hit him again and put him to sleep but Dubois had a bit too much respect for him to finish him off.
"Obviously, everyone was stood there like 'Wow' and Joshua went and jogged around the ring because his legs were like jelly, and he was trying to get his legs back.”
Fowler’s revelation became big news as Joshua and Dubois are set to meet on September 21, live on DAZN , and the details of the spar brought a response from Joshua.
"He cracked me with a great shot, and it's my chance to get him back on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it," Joshua said with a grin, speaking on DAZN.
"It's sparring. Now we're fighting, it's different. Let's move on."
Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter since day one, has also offered his opinion on the recent sparring information that has been doing the rounds.
"What I heard and what everyone was telling everyone was that AJ got carried out the ring unconscious.” reflected Hearn to IFLTV
That's changed quite a lot to 'he got buzzed by a shot, was out on his feet but they carried on sparring.'
"You do know that if you get hurt in sparring, the sparring stops. So, he got hit by a left hook apparently and [Anthony] Fowler says he had a little walk and then they carried on.
“I don't know what happened during the spar but both guys are massive punchers. The only thing I heard was that AJ got knocked out cold and obviously we knew that wasn't the case at all."
Despite what happened in the gym, the real stuff is set to go down shortly and both fighters will be giving it everything once the first bell sounds.