Rumours Anthony Joshua recently dropped hard and hurt in sparring by Lawrence Okolie?

[NorvernRob]

I wouldn't normally post rumours, especially about sparring sessions, but I saw this on a FB boxing page earlier and the guy seemed to know plenty of details and claimed to have heard it from two different sources. (A journalist and someone around the GB camp).

Apparently Joshua was recently dropped hard by Team GB's Lawrence Okolie, was hurt and took a while to recover. It was witnessed by Rob McCracken and some of the other GB boxers. The session was shut down and Joshua went home for the day.

This was when the Klitschko fight was falling through and Hearn was looking for another opponent - Sky wanted David Price in an all-British December fight, but after watching AJ get dropped McCracken told Hearn not to put him in with Price as his confidence had taken a hit and Price was far too risky a fight, so Hearn then went and made an offer to Molina and here we are.

Sound legit?

[deathofaclown]

I heard the very same story earlier today off someone "in the know" - he had no reason to make it up.

I was actually going to post the same thread but i can't link any sources for people to read so i didn't bother.

Seems quite legit but it's sparring, it happens. I'm not too sure they avoided Price because of it though. However Price really is a no win situation for Joshua right now, i think that's the reason, not because he got dropped. I think Sky/Hearn feel they can at least convince people Molina is a decent opponent. Price is a very hard sell, so they can't even convince people it's a decent win..and if he loses...that would be the end of AJ.

[hugh grant]

Josh is good offensively but in sparring holds back then his opponents can capitilise.
He came late to bocxing as well so prob isn't defense wizard

[j0zef]

Whether it's legit or not, why does it matter? It's sparring and they're heavyweights. Lose concentration in sparring for a second and you'll end up on your butt.

[Dip_Slide]

Means nothing at all.

[Canelo and GGG]

Yep it mean nothing ,just a sparring

[Rip Chudd]

@ Price too risky of a fight. That dude got iced by Tony Thompson twice

[Caught Square]

I'm just wondering when an interviewer will have the balls to ask him about the Price sparring story now that Price actually confirmed it. Always wanted to see what he would say about it.

[-Freddy-]

Yeah going to go along with the herd here. Sparring is different to an actual fight.

[NEETzsche]

@ Price too risky of a fight. That dude got iced by Tony Thompson twice

yeah that fight won't get made (unless price miraculously beats someone like ortiz) simply because it'd just be another haye-harrison and result in a huge public backlash. molina is at least a blank slate in the UK so matchroom and sky can bill him as anything they want

re. the rumour, it sounds plausible. i like okolie a lot, he has great instincts and is a fast learner. he got unlucky with his draw in the olympics. joshua fans should be worried if the titbit about him "taking a while to recover" is true, because it would confirm that his bad reaction to getting clipped by whyte wasn't merely a one-off