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Anthony Joshua talks comeback from fatal crash and Tyson Fury jibes: 'It's not about me; it's bigger than me'

Anthony Joshua talks comeback from fatal crash and Tyson Fury jibes: 'It's not about me; it's bigger than me' originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Anthony Joshua kept his sunglasses on indoors for almost the entirety of Monday's media engagement in London.

They felt like a layer of insulation between the former two-time unified heavyweight champion and the prying outside world, much like the small team of long-serving PR professionals who milled around with written journalists before our audience with AJ — immediately prior to the press conference to formally launch his July 25 bout with Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

During the press conference, many of the fighter's defiant utterances were clapped and cheered by a large group of his family and friends to the left of the auditorium. At the top table, Joshua's promoter and friend Eddie Hearn spoke of his pride in his fighter ahead of "one of the great comebacks".

It's not that Prenga, a New Jersey-based Albanian who has claimed all 20 of his career wins by knockout but feasted upon a diet of club fighters, should present an overly taxing assignment for an Olympic gold medalist. It's not even that the lamentably overdue superfight against Tyson Fury is signed and lies in wait, should Joshua take care of business. On December 19 last year, fighting for the first time since a punishing September 2024 knockout loss to Daniel Dubois at Wembley, Joshua ended Jake Paul's intolerable cardio and tumbling session by leaving the YouTube disruptor with a broken jaw. Ten days later, his world stopped.

Holidaying in Nigeria after the Paul fight, Joshua was a passenger in the car crash where his team members and close companions Sina Ghami and Latif "Latz" Ayodele were killed. It left him with an unenviable emotional burden but, as he got back to work, Joshua insisted he could never be the focus of this tragic affair.

"I have to put my emotions to the side because I focus on the parents, if I'm honest," Joshua said, having pledged to do everything he can to support Ghami and Ayodele's families, financially and beyond. "My emotions can come at a later stage. I really look at the parents and understand it's been most difficult for them. So, I don't make it about me, I make it about them — the mums and the dads of my two friends."

On whether this amounted to him keeping his emotions and grief buried, Joshua nodded and replied: "It's not for everyone. Everyone does it differently, but I think for me, that's the best way. How I'm handling the situation is that it's not about me; it's bigger than me."

Joshua has found solace in the boxing gym and in an unlikely union with a fighter who has spent the latter section of his career proving that challenges bigger than a man need not be insurmountable.

MORE:Anthony Joshua fatal car crash: What happened in incident in Nigeria

Why Anthony Joshua starting training with Oleksandr Usyk

In 2021 and 2022, the Briton lost back-to-back 12-round decisions against former cruiserweight master Oleksandr Usyk. The rematch defeat, Joshua's previous visit to Jeddah, drove him to distraction. Initial encouraging signs under new trainer Ben Davison, when he dispatched former amateur rival Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou — the MMA star who gave Fury fits — ultimately came crashing down inside five wretched rounds against Dubois. After the first prolonged break since he claimed the Olympic title in London in 2012, Joshua joined up with Team Usyk to plot his return.

The only surprise surrounding the video shoot depicting Usyk and Joshua as Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa — once fighting enemies, now firm friends in a coach and boxer relationship — was that it took so long to emerge. Team Usyk handled the circus of the Paul fight before events took a fatal turn. Usyk's comradeship has evidently been received with huge appreciation at a terribly difficult time. The Ukrainian kingpin has boldly predicted Joshua can emulate him and rule as the undisputed heavyweight champion in 2027.

"To a degree [it's surprising how much Usyk cares about me]. It would be different if we hadn't fought yet, if there was a potential fight looming and I was in the same gym as him," he said.

"I've been in environments like that. But we've had our time, we've had our fights, so there's a level of respect there and an understanding that we want to help each other. We have friendly competition in the gym. It's not the norm, but it's just how it is.

"He's got an Olympic team that has transitioned from the amateurs to the professional game. What I've learnt from him is to surround yourself with people who are experienced. Some of us train with our mate down the local gym, where you pay £20 a month. There's an S&C [strength and conditioning] coach and, when you're done with him, he has no communication with your boxing coach, and your boxing coach doesn't understand what you're doing.

"He's set his soldiers around him who understand we've got the duty that we're going out to conquer the world. There's not one person who's thinking about, 'oh, I'm happy living where I'm living', and one person wants to conquer this land... they're all on the same page, and he's structured it. That's what I've seen: the recipe for success. I've seen that, and you see that through him. When he fights, he's fighting with his team."

The team, no doubt, held their collective breath when Usyk was given a frightful scare by kickboxing superstar Rico Verhoeven earlier this month. It was noted, with a wry smile, by Prenga's promoter, Keith Sullivan, that his man is also a one-time kickboxer who has taken to the Queensberry Rules.

When is Anthony Joshua fighting Tyson Fury?

Provided Prenga is negotiated as expected, Fury will be a far more familiar proposition in late 2026. He and Joshua have circled one another for a decade, with various reasons — from legitimate to spurious — preventing the bout from taking place.

Even the emergence of a fine next generation of British heavyweights in Dubois, Fabio Wardley and the lavishly gifted Moses Itauma doesn't change the fact that Joshua vs. Fury will almost certainly be the biggest and most anticipated fight their homeland has ever seen.

When the topic of Fury came up — specifically referencing the recent comments by the 'Gyspy King' questioning the durability of Joshua's chin after he was floored four times by Dubois, who recently battered Wardley as the Ipswich man remained standing — the talk of prayer and purpose gave way to withering disdain.

"Listen, as a boss, you don't ride the next man's success. It's Dubois' success. It shows the type of mentality he has," Joshua said of Fury. "That's not a boss. A boss is going to create his own lane and talk about what he's done and what he's achieved.

"We could all talk about what Ngannou did to him, we could all talk about what Usyk did to him. We could talk about loads of comparisons. For him to talk about Dubois' success and use it as his own, it shows me that he's a d--- rider."

There was another moment when the venom of old simmered, when there was clearly no need to wrap a much-loved combatant in collective concern. After hearing the expected jibes from Prenga about how he would hand Joshua an upset loss for the ages, the two faced off for the ceremonial staredown. The two big men stood almost chest-to-chest, a little closer than promotional niceties dictate. It was time to let the pretender see what he was in for. For the only time this evening, Joshua removed his sunglasses to reveal an unblinking and glowering glare.

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