{"id":491871,"date":"2026-02-20T07:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491871\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:05:11","slug":"anthony-joshuas-return-timeline-comes-into-view-after-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/491871\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua&#8217;s return timeline comes into view after car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anthony Joshua could make his return to the ring later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Joshua, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/29\/sports\/anthony-joshua-in-car-crash-that-kills-two-in-nigeria-week-after-jake-paul-fight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who was involved in a car crash in Nigeria<\/a> that killed two of his closest friends in December, is expected to return to camp in the next few weeks and could start fighting this summer, promoter Eddie Hearn said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Following the crash that resulted in the deaths of Sina Ghami and Latif \u201cLatz\u201d Ayodele, Joshua\u2019s future in boxing has been up in the air.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4085282;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38548484\" width=\"831\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2025-anthony-joshua-celebrates-winning-117637383.jpg\" alt=\"Anthony Joshua celebrating his victory over Jake Paul with arms raised.\" class=\"wp-image-38548484\"  \/>Anthony Joshua celebrates winning his fight against Jake Paul on Dec. 19, 2025. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOriginally, the plan for AJ was for him to fight in March and then fight Tyson Fury in August. That\u2019s not happening,\u201d Hearn told reporters in England on Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/47977004\/anthony-joshua-return-training-fight-summer-eddie-hearn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to ESPN<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s not fighting Tyson Fury next. He\u2019s going to come back, I believe, late summer, but physically he\u2019s not yet in a position to return to camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hearn added that Joshua is preparing for potential upcoming events, saying the boxer plans to get back in the ring come July.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m planning, but he\u2019s just resting and preparing, Hearn added. \u201cSo, for me, I\u2019m looking at options to get him back in the ring in July time, but we\u2019ll only know if that\u2019s a real possibility when he returns to camp, which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks or a month.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the fight against Fury, Hearn said he doesn\u2019t expect the two to face off until the end of this year at the earliest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think every fight is dangerous, coming off what he\u2019s come off,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re open to the Fury fight but probably more likely [near the] end of the year, maybe early 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49896907;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38548492\" width=\"727\" height=\"485\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/photo-provided-federal-road-safety-117997577.jpg\" alt=\"People gather at the scene of a vehicle accident in Lagos, Nigeria.\" class=\"wp-image-38548492\"  \/>In this photo provided by the Federal Road Safety Corps, people gather at the accident scene of British boxer Anthony Joshua in Lagos, Nigeria, on Dec. 29, 2025. AP<\/p>\n<p>Joshua spoke publicly for the first time since the crash last month and thanked people for their support, adding that he <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/12\/sports\/anthony-joshua-gets-tattoo-dedicated-to-friends-killed-in-crash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">plans to fulfill his late friends\u2019 dreams<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat my goal is, is to continue to help them achieve their goals,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cEven though they may not be here in the physical, when I pray, I know spiritually they\u2019re going to aid me through. It\u2019s not just physical strength that will get me through. It\u2019s going to take a lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of strength [is] from a higher power, so I\u2019m definitely going to be saying my prayers, and I\u2019m going to help them fulfill their dreams for their families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua could make his return to the ring later this year. Joshua, who was involved in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[8075,64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-491871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491871","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=491871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}