Joshua said Wlad is currently better than him though and that's he's not ready for Wlad yet, so most likely only a rumor ?
One thing is for sure, he definitely performed much better against Wlad than Wilder did. Wlad rearranged Deontays face, knocked him down multiple times. This is all confirmed by Chef, and the pictures of Wilder after sparring with Wlad. Boy did he look like a mess.
James Ali Bashir said in a interview somewhere on youtube that Joshua did alot better than most of sparring partners wlad has had in camp over the years. He also said that Joshua hits harder with both hands than Wilder.
No real surprise that AJ was competitive in the ring with Wlad in sparring. He is a gold olympic medalist who has good technique, skill, speed and power. Take off the head guard and fight for real, it will be a different story. The big question for AJ is whats his chin like. We saw what happened to Price, who was a good boxer but with a poor chin.
I know Price was an established amatuer but I wouldn't call him a good boxer. His technique looks awful, he has massive power though.