ANTHONY JOSHUA showed off his MMA-style flying knee while training with former UFC middleweight Luke Barnatt. The unified heavyweight champion is currently holidaying in Spain before returning to his training camp back home for his defence agains Oleksandr Usyk. But despite the getaway, AJ is still staying active by visiting Barnatt’s gym Marbella. He uploaded […]
ANTHONY JOSHUA showed off his MMA-style flying knee while training with former UFC middleweight Luke Barnatt.
The unified heavyweight champion is currently holidaying in Spain before returning to his training camp back home for his defence agains Oleksandr Usyk.
But despite the getaway, AJ is still staying active by visiting Barnatt’s gym Marbella.
He uploaded a video hitting the pads with one of his coaches, Angel Fernandez, as they prepare to fight Usyk in September.
However, Joshua, 31, then switched it up by trying his hand at MMA, getting a striking masterclass from Barnatt, who last fought in December 2020.
AJ drilled kicks, one-two’s and most impressively flying knees, one of which Barnatt pretended knocked him out.
Joshua is not the only heavyweight boxer to have had MMA training, with Tyson Fury linking up with UFC middleweight Darren Till in 2019.
Fury once claimed he would entertain a switch to the UFC but only after retiring from boxing.
But more recently, he changed his mind and revealed he would only be up for fighting in smaller gloves, without any grappling involved.
Fury told talkSPORT: “No, I’ve got no real interest in grappling up and down on the floor and all that sort of stuff.
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“I’m a stand-up fighting man, I don’t wrestle up and down and grab each other’s arms and sit on each other and all that.
“I’ve no interest in all that stuff – I like to stand up and fight so would I ever compete as an MMA fighter? Hell no!
“Would I compete with small gloves on in a cage in a fight? Yes. But no gripping and grappling.
“The noble art of standing up and what men have been doing for centuries. I don’t see any noble science in wrestling up and down the floor.”
UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou, 34, has called out both Joshua and Fury before, having eyed a boxing career before his MMA debut.
He was even linked with a two-fight deal against ex-kickboxer Dillian Whyte who won his only MMA fight, in 2018.
