‘Tough for me, tougher for their parents’: Boxer Anthony Joshua in tribute to friends killed in crash
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Anthony Joshua arriving for a public weigh-in on Sept 20 in Trafalgar Square, on the eve of a heavyweight boxing match for the IBF world title in London.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua paid a moving tribute on Jan 8 to the two close friends killed in a car crash in Nigeria, labelling them “brothers” and “great men”.
Joshua was hurt with minor injuries in the Dec 29 crash and after being discharged from hospital, he returned to England before attending the funerals of Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami on Jan 4.
“Thank you for all the love and care you have shown my brothers,” the Briton posted on Instagram.
“I didn’t even realise how special they are. I’ll just be walking with them and cracking jokes with them, not even knowing God kept me in the presence of great men.
“100 per cent it’s tough for me, but I know it’s even tougher for their parents. I have a strong mind, and I believe God knows their hearts. May God have mercy on my brothers.”
Ayodele, the personal trainer of the former two-time unified heavyweight champion, and Ghami, Joshua’s long-time strength and conditioning coach, both died at the scene of the crash.
Nigerian police charged the driver of the vehicle, Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, with “dangerous driving causing death”.
The accident took place on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in south-west Nigeria, where the Lexus sport utility vehicle in which they were travelling rammed into a stationary truck.
Joshua, 36, who has family roots in Nigeria, was on holiday in the country following his win over YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami on Dec 19. AFP
