ANTHONY JOSHUA has made his first sporting appearance since the tragic car crash that claimed the lives of his two close friends in Nigeria.
The two-time heavyweight world champion was the only person to survive the car crash in Lagos, but sadly he lost Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele, two friends who had been a part of his inner circle since even before the start of his career.
On Saturday night he appeared at PFL’s show in Dubai and greeted UFC superstars Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov backstage.
Makhachev, a two-weight world champion in UFC and current welterweight champion, asked Joshua to come and train with them in Dagestan, Russia.
Joshua said: “Maybe two or three weeks? Not years.”
AJ later took his place at ringside to take in the action.
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Dagestan has become MMA‘s hotbed for the best grapplers in the world.
Nurmagomedov retired a perfect 29-0 with a huge win over Conor McGregor to his name. His younger cousin, Usman, is main eventing this PFL card that AJ has attended.
He fought Englishman Alfie Davies in the final fight of the night, but
Joshua has spent a lot of time in Dubai in the past few years in and out of training camps and there’s every chance he was just in the area.
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There’s a massive year of boxing ahead!
It’s shaping up to be a blockbuster year of action inside the boxing ring.
Tyson Fury will make his return in April against Arslanbek Makhmudov, Conor Benn is closing in on a world title shot and Fabio Wardley will defend his newly won heavyweight crown.
Canelo Alvarez will be hoping to return after his defeat to Terence Crawford and heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk will also need to defend his straps.
Derek Chisora will fight for the 50th and (perhaps) final time against Deontay Wilder, while Daniel Dubois is also on the comeback trail.
A whole bunch of British stars could also take a leap into superstardom, with the likes of Moses Itauma, Hamzah Sheeraz and Adam Azim ready to join the very top of the sport.
Here’s all the big fights coming up…
February
- Sat 7 – Nick Ball vs Brandon Figueroa – WBA featherweight title – DAZN
- Sat 21 – Ryan Garcia vs Mario Barrios – WBC welterweight title – DAZN PPV
- Sat 21 – Leigh Wood vs Josh Warrington – DAZN
- Sun 22 – Claressa Shields vs Franchon Crews-Dezurn – heavyweight unification – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Emanuel Navarrete vs Eduardo Nunez – super-featherweight unification – DAZN
March
- Sat 14 – Jazza Dickens vs Anthony Cacace – WBA super-featherweight title – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Moses Itauma vs Jermaine Franklin – DAZN
- Sat 28 – Sebastian Fundora vs Keith Thurman – Amazon Prime PPV
April
- Sat 4 – Derek Chisora vs Deontay Wilder – DAZN PPV
- Sat 11 – Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov – Netflix
Joshua recently posted a video on social media addressing his devastating losses and opened up to fans while fighting back the tears.
While his return to boxing has not been confirmed as of yet, Joshua has intimated he still has business to carry out and indeed, he wants to honour his fallen friends.
His promoter Eddie Hearn has insisted Joshua is training, but he will likely always train even if he doesn’t fight again.
Hearn said: “AJ will always train. Do not forget that boxing changed his life forever and he will never leave the gym.
“What 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 to recover and repair. I just cannot believe his strength and resilience.”