Friday 12 August 2016 18:27, UK
David Price has claimed he knocked out Anthony Joshua in sparring and offered the world heavyweight champion a chance for revenge in the professional ranks.
The Liverpudlian recently responded to a tweet by Joshua asking for 'serious' opponents by volunteering his services as a challenger for the IBF title, hinting at a dramatic past encounter.
Price has now shed light on a training session in 2011 during which he says he emphatically floored Joshua, a year before the Watford amateur struck gold at the London Olympic Games.
"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.
Will he see my face and remember what happened when we were across the ring? Possibly.
"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."
Asked if he knocked out Joshua, Price replied: "100 per cent 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.
"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."
Former British and Commonwealth champion Price ended a 10-month absence from the ring with a stoppage win in May and insists he would be ready for a shot at Joshua.
"One hundred per cent, in a heartbeat," said Price. "I've been in training since I came back. I've put my name in a hat for a voluntary defence but I don't think I've been mentioned. When I've seen that it looks like they have been struggling with opponents, I've put my name forward again.
"It depends on how Anthony Joshua will view what I've said. I'm putting it out there that the last time we did share a ring together, only one of us walked out unaided and that was me.
"The fight between me and Anthony Joshua isn't a foregone conclusion. Both fighters can get in the ring and win. That's what people want, the excitement and the potential of seeing Anthony Joshua getting beat and you don't need to look any further than myself."
