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Tyson Fury recalls the time he punked Anthony Joshua

Fury says Joshua’s demeanor has changed since the last time they sparred.

Tyson Fury and Billy Joe Saunders Workout Session Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

Let me lead off by saying this: Tyson Fury won’t be fighting Anthony Joshua any time soon. But with that matter-of-fact tidbit out the way, that hasn’t stopped Fury from talking up a storm when it comes to his heavyweight rivals.

This latest instance involves Fury telling a quick story of the time he sparred Anthony Joshua during his amateur run. Fury says Joshua had a couple of good rounds with him until he started touching Joshua with body shots, which he says had Joshua sort of cowering in a corner while lifting his legs in the air to protect his midsection.

Fury continues to say there were many people in the gym who witnessed that sparring session, so he finds it a little humorous that Joshua is now calling him out for a proper fight.

“He seems pretty spirited, doesn’t he? But when I stood face-to-face with him and said, ‘Do you want to get outside?’ His a*** started flapping. He s*** himself!”

“It doesn’t matter what weight I was at the time. I wasn’t in shape but I’d have taken him outside and kicked his c*** right in for him.

“If a man said that to me – I don’t care if I was unfit or not – he’d be outside and punched. We’d have had to have a fight. Simple. I don’t care who he is or what he is.

“But I said that to him and he didn’t want to know.”

Fury, 30, is currently slated to take on Tom Schwarz on June 15 in Las Vegas, which will officially kick off his new deal with Top Rank. However, because it appears that Fury is essentially obligated to fight ESPN+, Fury might be an even longer shot to fight Joshua than Deontay Wilder currently is. We’ll see how that all plays out in the coming months, but for now all we have is a little anecdotal trash-talking to enjoy.

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