Nigerian boxers have urged Anthony Joshua not to retire from the sport following the fatal car crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of two of his close friends, with opinions divided on whether the British-Nigerian heavyweight should continue his career, The PUNCH reports.\n<\/p>\n
Former UBO champion Rasheed Idowu believes Joshua will eventually return to the ring despite rumours of his retirement after the December 29 accident.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he can retire that way. How many boxers have we seen that have announced retirement and come back to box later?\u201d Idowu told The PUNCH.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he just wants to honour his friends\u2019 memory and legacy. He will return to boxing in due time. He has already returned to the gym, so I don\u2019t think he can retire like that. The game is still in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former national champion Sikiru Alimi advised Joshua to take his time before making a final decision.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should return, but can take it very slow and be patient for now with his recovery and getting over the trauma,\u201d Alimi said.\n<\/p>\n
However, national silver medallist Samson Chukwuka suggested a different path for the 36-year-old heavyweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with what happened, he should retire and become an ambassador. There is no way he will go into the ring, and he won\u2019t remember his friends he lost who were a big part of his boxing,\u201d Chukwuka told our correspondent.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will cause a problem when a boxer gets distracted. He can become a boxing ambassador now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The crash on December 29 killed Joshua\u2019s personal trainer, Latif Ayodele and long-time strength and conditioning coach Sina Ghami. <\/p>\n
Joshua\u2019s uncle, Adedamola Joshua, previously told our correspondent that the heavyweight fighter had informed his family of his decision to retire.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe major thing there is that he has retired from boxing. That is one thing that makes us glad because each time he\u2019s fighting in the ring, we are always carried away emotionally,\u201d Adedamola said during a visit to the family home in Sagamu.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEach time he\u2019s knocked down, it is just like the heart is coming out of our chest. All these emotional feelings whenever he\u2019s fighting, it\u2019s too much trauma for us, also.\n<\/p>\n
Now that he has said that he\u2019s leaving while the ovation is highest, we are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has expressed uncertainty over Joshua\u2019s future, revealing that the fighter is currently training \u201cfor his own mind\u201d rather than preparing for a comeback.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, there is no conversation or no need to have a conversation about that. It\u2019s just\u2026 \u2018AJ\u2019 will always train,\u201d Hearn told iFL TV after visiting Joshua in Dubai.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you are seeing at the moment is not him training for his return. He is training for his own mind. And he is training for himself physically to recover and repair. I just cannot believe his strength and resilience.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Former opponent Oleksandr Usyk contradicted the retirement claims, revealing that Joshua still has the desire to continue fighting.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already spoken with him. I heard a desire to continue in his voice \u2014 for the friends he lost and for the chance to live that the Lord gave him,\u201d Usyk told Ready To Fight.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerian boxers have urged Anthony Joshua not to retire from the sport following the fatal car crash in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[8075,64,63,802,1920,231002,9915,7702,231003,7704,231004,1793,85],"class_list":["post-445255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-british-nigerian-boxer","tag-eddie-hearn","tag-heavyweight-boxing","tag-nigerian-boxers","tag-oleksandr-usyk","tag-rasheed-idowu","tag-retirement","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}