Eddie Hearn has played down the significance of suggestions that Daniel Dubois hurt Anthony Joshua in sparring.
Dubois defends his IBF heavyweight world title against Joshua at Wembley Stadium next Saturday.
Much of the pre-fight hype has centred around whether Dubois dropped his rival during a sparring session that took place seven years ago.
Former super welterweight contender, Anthony Fowler, who watched the pair trade blows at the EIS in Sheffield, claimed that ‘Dynamite’ hurt ‘AJ’, but insists he did not floor him.
“Joshua must have been a little clumsy sparring him and he got caught with a short left hook and Joshua’s legs completely went,” Fowler told talkSPORT.
“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.
“And everyone was going, ‘wait, wait, wait’. Joshua wanted to carry on but Rob McCracken was like, ‘have a little break, get your legs back to normal, and then spar’ and then they continued sparring.
“He didn’t knock him out, he didn’t hit the floor but he was really, really hurt.
“Dubois probably could have hit him again and knocked him out but he chose not to out of respect.”
Hearn, Joshua’s career-long promoter, insists that if his charge was truly hurt then the spar would have been halted.
“When they [Queensberry] signed Dubois, the narrative that was being spun was that Dubois flattened AJ,” Hearn told Pro Boxing Fans.
“Now all of a sudden we’re finding out that he rocked him with a left hook, AJ had a little stroll around the ring and then he carried on sparring.
“If you get badly hurt in sparring, you do not carry on the spar.
“The fact that they carried on the spar, tells you everything that you need to know about how hurt he was.
“I’m sure he has been buzzed in sparring, not just by Daniel Dubois, by various, different people, because they’re big heavyweight lumps and when you get hit clean on the chin, that happens.”
