Eddie Hearn has shot down rumours that Anthony Joshua was once dropped by Daniel Dubois as their crunch boxing match on September 21 creeps closer.
AJ will be fighting for the first time since his convincing victory over Francis Ngannou in March as he looks to continue his brilliant form.
Joshua was written off by many after losing twice to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Yet the 34-year-old has since responded with victories over the likes of Jermaine Franklin Jr, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and Ngannou.
Boxing news: Eddie Hearn has shot down rumours that Anthony Joshua was once dropped by Daniel Dubois as their crunch fight creeps closer
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There's plenty of spice to the clash between Joshua and Dubois.
But Hearn, speaking to The Sun, has now shut down claims AJ was once dropped by his upcoming opponent in sparring while they were once friends.
“Like any boxing rumours, sparring rumours, they’re always vastly exaggerated," he said.
“If you watch Anthony Fowler on Instagram, who was there for the spar, he actually explained what happened.
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"AJ didn’t even get dropped. By all accounts, he got buzzed and they carried on sparring.
“So, I’d be astonished if any heavyweight can go through even one camp of sparring without being buzzed with these guys, 18-19 stone swinging at each other.
“I remember when I first saw the rumours going from strength to strength of him being like carried out the ring, I was almost reading them at the time going, ‘That’s not true is it?’
“No, not in the slightest. But now you’re hearing from people who were there.
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"But I’m sure they both hurt each other in sparring. They’re both huge punchers.”
Tempers boiled over when the two men came face-to-face back in June, with AJ threatening to launch a chair at Dubois.
Many were shocked by Joshau's behaviour given he's normally a cool and calm character.
But Hearn has now defended his fighter while urging him to bring that 'edge' to the bout later this month.
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Boxing news: Eddie Hearn wants Anthony Joshua to bring an 'edge' to his upcoming clash with Daniel Dubois
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The boxing promoter added: “It’s quite funny because people say, ‘We haven’t seen that from AJ before.’
"If you go back to even as far back as Dominic Breazeale when they did their head to head, which was like ten years ago.
“And Breazeale was like, ‘Well I’m ready now, you want to fight now?’ And it was exactly the same thing.
“Otto Wallin, actually in one of the press conferences and AJ did exactly the same thing. So it’s nothing really different.
Boxing news: Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois will fight on September 21
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“I just think sometimes people expect this clean-cut sort of ambassador to not have a straightener in a studio.
“But that’s him. He’s got that in him, he’s got that fight in him, he’s got the dog in him and he’s ready to go at any time.
“And, we don’t want him to lose that because that’s the edge that you need in boxing and that’s the edge that he needs in this fight.”
