By Keith Idec

Tyson Fury refuted a rumor that the reason he moved his training camp late last month was because he knocked out Joe Joyce in a sparring session.

“No, there’s no truth in it,” Fury said during a conference call Wednesday. “It’s got nothing to do with why I left. I just told you why I left. It was always planned to leave.”

Fury explained earlier during that conference call that he shifted his training base from the high altitude of Big Bear Lake, California, to the Los Angeles area because it was part of his camp plan for the Deontay Wilder fight all along.

The gigantic Brit began training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood three weeks ago. The 6-feet-9, 255-pound Fury had been training at Abel Sanchez’s gym, The Summit, in Big Bear Lake since he started training camp early in October.

Sanchez trains Joyce, another huge British heavyweight who was Fury’s primary sparring partner while he was in Big Bear Lake. The 6-feet-6, 250-pound Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs), a highly touted 2016 Olympian, will square off against American Joe Hanks (23-2, 15 KOs) in the Showtime Pay-Per-View opener on the Wilder-Fury undercard December 1 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“We always planned to move,” Fury said. “Big Bear was altitude training. We had 3½ weeks in Big Bear and it was very good. I loved every minute of it, but we moved down to sea level to train for the fight.”

Fury (27-0, 19 KOs), of Manchester, England, also discussed the addition of Roach to his training team.

Ben Davison replaced his uncle, Peter Fury, as his head trainer when Fury seriously initiated his comeback in January. Davison is still Fury’s head trainer, but Fury made it clear Wednesday that Roach will be free to say and do whatever he wants for the remainder of training camp and during his 12-round fight for Wilder’s WBC heavyweight title.

“Whatever Freddie wants to do, he can do,” Fury said. “Freddie’s his own man. Whatever he wants to do, he’ll do in the corner. I’m sure he will.

“It’s always good to have experience in the corner. It’s always good to have a wise hand in the corner, and it’s gonna be to my advantage.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.