By Edward Chaykovsky
Olympic bronze medal winner David Price (20-3, 17KOs) revealed a shocker, claiming that he knocked out IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17KOs) during a sparring session.
Price says the sparring session took place in 2011, a year before Joshua captured a gold medal at the London Olympic Games. If a fight was put together, Price - because he's viewed as a having a suspect chin - would be a huge underdog, but Price feels he is just as capable of knocking Joshua out.
"It's probably the worst kept secret in boxing and it's something that I've never really brought up or mentioned," Price told Sky Sports. "When it happened, Joshua was an amateur on the GB squad and I was a novice pro and I kept it to myself because he was an up and coming potential boxer. I wanted to protect him from it, didn't want to go around boasting about it.
"But our positions have changed and he's IBF heavyweight champion of the world. I'm someone who would definitely be interested in having a shot at it, and I thought the time was right to let the cat out of the bag and let people know. It is possible that Anthony Joshua can be hurt and can be beaten. What I'm talking about happened a long time ago, but it's still the two same people."
Price explained further, stating that Joshua was face first on the mat and needed help from his trainers to take him out of the ring. He feels the contest would sell very well domestically and Price feels ready to take him on as soon as possible.
"[I knocked Joshua out] 100 percent yeah. If it was a fight, it would have been stopped immediately. Not asleep, but flat on his face and ushered out of the ring by his trainers," Price said.
"It doesn't seem to have affected him that much, because he's gone on to achieve good things. He won a world silver medal a few months later. Will he see my face and remember what happened when we were across the ring? Possibly. But there is only one way to find out. Look, the Dillian Whyte fight sold on the back of an amateur fight when Anthony Joshua got put down and got up and lost on points three bouts in. Anthony Joshua when he was a double ABA champion - soon to be world silver medallist - getting put flat on his face by myself, that should sell as well, I would imagine."
