Boxer Anthony Joshua injured in Nigeria highway crash

Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua was injured in a fatal highway accident that killed two people on Monday (Dec 29), his promoter and a Nigerian police source said.

Pictures circulating online showed a shirtless Joshua – a British national of Nigerian heritage – surrounded by what appeared to be broken window glass on the seats around him.

The 36-year-old is also seen being extricated from a wrecked vehicle while wincing in pain.

The accident occurred on a major thoroughfare linking Ogun state, a nearby city, to Lagos, the country’s economic centre.

Nigeria is the homeland of Joshua’s parents and where he briefly went to boarding school at the age of 11.

Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told told Daily Mail Sport he was on a family holiday and “awoke to the news of this incident”.

“We are trying to contact Anthony and in the meantime we don’t want to speculate on how he is but thankfully he appears OK from what I have seen in the images,” he said.

Punch newspaper said the crash occurred when the car he was riding in collided with a truck.

A witness to the crash said Joshua was travelling in a two-vehicle convoy, and was seated behind his driver.

“The passenger beside the driver and the person beside Joshua died on the spot,” Adeniyi Orojo told Punch news.

Joshua had recently beaten YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul nine days ago in a bout in Miami, which he was using to regain sharpness in the ring ahead of an attempt to reclaim the world heavyweight title, which he lost in 2021 to Oleksandr Usyk.

He has been in talks to fight fellow Briton Tyson Fury in 2026.