{"id":822819,"date":"2026-03-13T10:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/822819\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T10:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T10:36:18","slug":"anthony-joshua-posts-sparring-footage-as-preparations-ramp-up-for-comeback-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/822819\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua posts sparring footage as preparations ramp up for comeback fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua is back sparring again for the first time since his involvement in a fatal car accident that killed two of his teammates<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Joshua’s personal trainer, Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele, and strength and conditioning coach, Sina Ghami,\u00a0tragically passed away in December when the SUV they were travelling in crashed into a stationary truck<\/a>\u00a0on a highway in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

\"Joshua<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Joshua was filmed training on Thursday at Finchley ABC, banking rounds of light technical sparring<\/p>\n

Joshua sustained minor injuries, but the significant toll of losing two close friends led to a hiatus from the gym and a period of mourning for the two-time world heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

The crash, which happened just outside the Nigerian capital of Lagos, left Joshua’s future up in the air.<\/p>\n

However, he has since confirmed his intentions to continue competing.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Joshua returned to his first-ever boxing gym, Finchley ABC, to whip himself up into fighting shape.<\/p>\n

And during a recent training session, he blew off the cobwebs to bank a few rounds of light technical sparring.<\/p>\n

Joshua uploaded the footage onto his Snapchat story.<\/p>\n

While there isn’t too much to glean from the clips, it does increase the likelihood of Eddie Hearn<\/a>‘s cryptic AJ update being an imminent fight announcement.<\/p>\n

Taking to his Instagram story on Thursday, Hearn teased news around Joshua by uploading a photo of the pair walking to the ring together with the caption: “Loading.” <\/p>\n

It comes after Hearn revealed that there are tentative plans in place for his long-time client to return to the ring in July.<\/a><\/p>\n

Anthony Joshua’s next steps<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, the plan with AJ was for him to fight in March and then fight\u00a0Tyson Fury<\/a>\u00a0in August,\u201d Hearn told BoxingScene last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not happening. He\u2019s not fighting Tyson Fury next.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s going to come back, I believe, in late summer, but physically he\u2019s not yet in a position to return to camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m planning, but he\u2019s just resting and preparing.<\/p>\n

“So, for me, I\u2019m looking at options to get him back in the ring in July time.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Joshua hasn’t set foot in the ring since knocking out Jake Paul<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Joshua knocked out Paul in December, breaking the YouTuber’s jaw in the processCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Kickboxing legend Rico Verhoeven was being lined up as his opponent in early 2026 before the accident in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT<\/p>\n

Now, Verhoeven is facing Oleksandr Usyk for the WBC heavyweight title on May 23.<\/a><\/p>\n

Boxing schedule<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out\u00a0talkSPORT.com’s\u00a0 boxing schedule<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua is back sparring again for the first time since his involvement in a fatal car accident…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4108],"tags":[5060,1935,4496,26333,26335,236682,79,9699,16,15,36292,51565,13417],"class_list":["post-822819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-anthony-joshua","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-comeback","tag-return","tag-sparring","tag-sports","tag-training","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-when","tag-where","tag-who"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116221430304302147","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}