ANTHONY JOSHUA was once defeated by a 6ft 9in behemoth, his former training partner has claimed.
AJ will return to Wembley Stadium on Saturday, where a British record crowd of 96,000 is expected.
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He is challenging his former teammate Daniel Dubois for the IBF heavyweight world champion.
The incident comes several years after Dubois was rumoured to have slammed AJ in an infamous session at Team GB’s Sheffield HQ.
Joshua was quick to deny he had been knocked down, but admitted he had at least been knocked unconscious by a left hook.
Anthony Fowler — a 2016 Olympian who trained with the two — said he was there and saw AJ’s legs turn to jelly.
Fowler – who is now retired – further claimed that Kazakhstan’s Ivan Dychko also gave Joshua a lot of trouble in sparring.
he told talkSPORT: “I remember Ivan Dychko knocked Joshua down. And David Price knocked Joshua down really hard, he hurt Joshua really badly.
“That Kazakh guy knocked him down once, but it was a flash knockdown. And Dubois hurt him too.
“I’ve seen him get hurt three times, but this is heavyweight boxing, so it doesn’t matter who you are, if you get hit on the chin you can go down.”
Joshua vs Dubois fight predictions
This weekend will see one of the greatest British battles ever staged at Wembley.
But who will emerge victorious under the leadership of this famous boxer? Some of boxing’s biggest names have had their say…
Oleksandr Usyk“My favourite is Anthony Joshua, but I’m really bad at making predictions. But I would predict Anthony Joshua.”
Dillion Whyte“I think it’s one of those fights where it’s really a 50/50 fight in my opinion.”
Joe Joyce: “I was initially going with Joshua but I don’t know, Dubois is coming forward.”
Frazer Clarke“As powerful as Dubois is and as good a fighter as he’s becoming, I’d still have to go for Joshua.”
Francis Ngannou: “Even though Joshua lost twice against Usyk and Dubois fought Usyk and almost knocked him out and almost won, I would still give this award to Joshua.”
Click here for more fight predictions for Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois
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Joshua admitted to being slammed by the 6ft 8in Price, 41, but denied ever going to the canvas with Dubois.
Interestingly, AJ had defeated Dychko in the semi-finals of the 2012 Olympics, his first attempt at winning a gold medal in the capital.
This means that the European player had pinned him just before defeating him in the Games.
Fowler, 33, said: “That was in the amateurs, we were practising with all the Kazakhstanis, and they were all wearing small gloves.
“They were all wearing competition gloves, and we were all wearing bigger gloves.
“I fought Serik Sapiyev and he beat me. He was wearing 10-ounce gloves and had pillows over my hands.
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Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois: Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the huge world title fight at Wembley
“It was pre-Olympic sparring. Joshua was loading up and I think he got caught in a one-two and it was a flash knockdown.
“There weren’t many people there, it was just a brawl but I remember it.”
Joshua, 34, bizarrely referred to an argument he had with Dubois, 27, during a press conference.
“He knocked me out with one great shot and now I have a chance to take revenge on him on Saturday,” he said.
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He said: “I’m looking forward to it. We’ve fought hundreds of rounds, haven’t we?”
Dubois said: “This is combat. Now we’re fighting, it’s different. Now move on. Now we can move on. Move on.”
