ANTHONY JOSHUA got the better of Tyson Fury in their infamous sparring session, his first boxing coach has claimed.
The future heavyweight rivals shared three rounds together in 2010 and the story has since become the stuff of legend.
Very few truly know what happened that day, but one of those who does is Finchley Amateur Boxing trainer Sean Murphy.
And Murphy has given SunSport an exclusive insight into the sparring session and how he believes AJ came off better.
He said: “At the time Josh had just won his first, I think, the ABA title. But he was relatively still a novice.
“In Tyson’s defence he’s thinking I’m just going to move this up-and-coming kid around it will be a walk in the park sort of thing.
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“When he turned up his trainer said we want to do three relaxed rounds.
“Imagine, I’ve got a packed gym, about thirty members there, Josh
has just won the ABA title, it’s going to be hard for me to say to Josh, ‘Can you just go light, he just wants a little move around.’
“Tyson was staring and was saying, ‘Bring it on. Bring it on!’
“I warned him about Josh and said he knows you’re a professional and he’s an upcoming prospect and you have said that if anyone can knock me down in sparring I’ll give them my Rolex.”
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The two would go on the box three rounds in the famed London gym and Murphy gave his account of how it played out.
He revealed: “When they got in there for the first round, Tyson was just thinking it was going to be easy and light.
“He’s quite relaxed, and Josh is hitting him with a setup one-two left hook uppercut and sort of wobbled him.
“So, it was like, ‘Oh, f***ing hell, this is serious now.’ We won the first round.
“Second round Tyson started to give him a little bit of verbal, sort of getting in his head. Tyson won the second round.
“So I gave Josh a bollocking, ‘What the f*** are you doing! Calm down, you’re letting him get into your head now. He’s beating you. Go back out and box like you did in the first round.’
“And he done that the third round and got the better of him and at the end I said, ‘Jump out.’ And Tyson is going, ‘No, no, no! One more round, one more round!’
“I knew now Tyson is going to turn it on with Josh. I said, ‘Nah, nah, nah, you only asked for three rounds, that’s what you’re getting.’”
Tyson at the time had offered to put his Rolex on the line to any sparring partner that could floor him.
According to Murphy, Joshua came close to winning the luxury watch.
And the coach admitted he would have allowed for more rounds – had Fury been willing to pay for it.
Murphy said: “So, Josh got out, but Tyson did have another round with a lad called Stacey who was training for a White Collar fight.
“I did ask Tyson before they sparred, ‘Are you going to weigh him in?’
“He said, ‘What do you mean weigh him in?’ I said, ‘Are you going to pay him?’ He went, ‘No, no, no, we don’t do that.’
“So, I did say if you had paid him I would’ve got him to do more rounds with you. I knew what the crack was.
‘IS THE ROLEX UP FOR GRABS?’
“He was going to put more on in the fourth round. Josh was an amateur and at the time he doesn’t need that.
“So we did three rounds and that was that. I asked Tyson, ‘Is the Rolex for grabs?’
“He just laughed. He was a really nice fella, I must admit. He was a down to earth man, and he’s a genuine person.”
The relevance of that sparring session still remains unclear, with Joshua, 32, and Fury, 33, yet to fight each other.
After Oleksandr Usyk, 35, beat AJ in September it dashed the chances of a Battle of Britain.
And the domestic derby faced a further knock back when Fury knocked out Dillian Whyte, 34, in April and announced his retirement.
But, hope is not all lost with Joshua set to rematch Usyk in Saudi Arabia on August 20.
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And Fury has CONFIRMED he would be willing to come back and fight the winner, even if his price tag has started at £500MILLION to do so.
So if AJ upsets Usyk in their Saudi sequel, and the price is right for the Gypsy King, the two could share the ring again, but for real this time.
