To the surprise of many, Anthony Joshua's next bout against Andy Ruiz Jnr at Madison Square Garden won't be AJ's first fight across the Atlantic.

Although this fight is being dubbed as Joshua's first fight on American soil, this isn't necessarily true. 

As a mere amateur, Joshua travelled to the US on behalf of his boxing club Finchley ABC to take on then experienced amateur and military man J'Von Wallace. 

The fight took place at The Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas in front of an all-American crowd who was less than pleased with Joshua's victory against a typical patriarchal figure of the United States.

Then trainer Sean Murphy remembers from the fight, and has said, as per Sky Sports: "The first round was pretty close, but then Josh was too strong for the other kid."

He added: "Josh dropped him in the last round and threw another punch as the kid was going down - he got a warning for that. Josh won the fight clearly."

Wallace was described by AJ's former teammate Ollie Paterson as a 'big guy', but Joshua had too much skill and raw power for the American to deal with, according to the fighter. 

"Wallace was a big guy but Josh won convincingly," said Pattison.

"Too strong, too quick. Josh hit him with everything - luckily it was only an amateur fight so three rounds. Any longer and the guy wouldn't have been able to take it.

"J'Von Wallace added AJ as a friend on Facebook after!"

However, a series of events may have prevented AJ even taking this fight at all.

Fighting as an amateur, Joshua also worked as a bricklayer in Hertfordshire, but was presented with an ultimatum.

Joshua's boss at the time told him if he went to Las Vegas for two weeks, he would lose his job. So it was the job, or boxing. 

"I hardly ever saw him a bad mood, but, one night, he was late for training and was hacked off," Murphy remembered.

"They had kept him late at work. Josh was on the GB squad so was getting a monthly wage in funding.

"I told him: 'If you want to take this seriously, can you manage without your job? It's holding you back'.

"He said: 'I can manage'.

"He struggled, don't get me wrong. But he gave the job up because he wanted to get further with boxing."

Joshua's upcoming challenger Ruiz Jnr has taken the fight on short notice, but this isn't the first time that AJ has competed in similar circumstances. Joshua fought Carlos Takam back in 2017, who replaced Kubrat Pulev just 12 days before the fight. 

"He's had a lot of experience in a short amount of time which is better than the same experience over a longer period," former teammate Pattison said.

These successes during short preparations can be accredited to former ABC Finchley trainer Murphy who regularly varied his opponents to make AJ prepared for every style. 

"We did a lot of work on boxing at range because he is a tall lad. But we also did a lot of inside-work - he can tuck up, throw short hooks, work the body," Murphy said.

"Other coaches would say: 'get on his chest' but Josh would mess them up on the inside. He had the best of both.

"Much like he is now, Josh was a box-fighter. He liked to take it to 'em. He liked to stamp his authority."

For his first professional fight in the US, Anthony Joshua is set to take on Andy Ruiz Jnr on June 1.