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Tyson Fury once told an Anthony Joshua opponent to kick his British rival in the balls as part of a bizarre pre-fight pep talk
Veteran heavyweight Matt Legg fought a young Joshua on the undercard of Carl Froch vs George Groves 2 at Wembley in 2014. It proved to be final fight of Legg’s career, but it was a memorable way to finish, even if he was stopped inside two rounds and left with a broken eye socket.
In the months before the fight, Legg enjoyed some high-level sparring with Tyson Fury after answering a challenge from the Gypsy King.
Fury had branded his British rivals “pussies” in a social media post as he struggled to find opponents and even sparing partners.
Legg answered the challenge and sparred with Fury on his family’s caravan site.
He later returned for another session with Fury and his cousin Hughie. Legg won the respect of the Fury family, with Tyson even offering him some comical advice before he got in the ring with rising star Joshua.
“I actually got a message from Tyson before the AJ fight and he said, ‘give it everything you’ve got for one round’,” Legg told Daily Star Sport. “Headbutt him, bite him, kick him in the balls! You know what Tyson’s like, he says funny stuff like that.
“I got that message the night before and it made me laugh. My plan was to give it everything for two rounds anyway so they weren’t far off, but without the dirty tactics!”
Legg, who has a popular YouTube channel where gives his views on the fight scene, is intrigued rather excited about Fury’s showdown with MMA star Francis Ngannou this weekend. Like many boxing fans, he is eagerly anticipating Fury’s heavyweight unification fight against Oleksandr Usyk, due to take place at the end of this year or early in 2024.
“I will watch it but I’m little bit disappointed he’s not fighting Usyk [first],” he said. “That’s the fight we want to do. People want to see the Usyk fight to get an undisputed champion.
“We’ve been dying for that for since Lennox Lewis. I’ll still watch it out of curiosity but there’s not one person saying Francis Ngannou can win.”
