Police say two people die in a car crash in Ogun State involving the two-time former heavyweight champion.
Boxer Anthony Joshua injured in deadly car crash in Nigeria
By Al Jazeera Staff and News Agencies
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British former heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been involved in a car accident in Nigeria’s Ogun State that killed two people, local police say.
Joshua, 36, sustained minor injuries when the car he was travelling in collided with another vehicle on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway on Monday, local police said.
“The vehicle conveying Anthony Joshua, a Lexus SUV, was involved in the accident under circumstances that are currently being investigated,” police spokesperson for Ogun State, Oluseyi Babaseyi, said in a statement.
“He was seated in the rear of the vehicle, sustained minor injuries and [is] receiving medical attention.”
Joshua could not immediately be reached for comment.
Photos on social media purported to show the boxer being extricated from a wrecked vehicle while he was wincing in pain.
The accident occurred on a major thoroughfare linking Ogun State, a nearby city, to Lagos, the country’s economic centre.
According to a statement by Olusegun Ogungbemide, spokesperson for the Federal Road Safety Corps, preliminary investigations indicate the vehicle was “travelling beyond the legally prescribed speed limit on the corridor, lost control during an overtaking manoeuvre” and crashed into a stationary truck parked by the side of the road.
Witness Adeniyi Orojo also told the Nigerian newspaper The Punch that Joshua was travelling in a Lexus that collided with a stationary vehicle.
“Joshua was seated behind the driver with another person beside him,” he told the newspaper.
“There was also a passenger sitting beside the driver, making four occupants in the Lexus that crashed. His security detail was in the vehicle behind them before the crash.”
He added: “The passenger beside the driver and the person beside Joshua died on the spot.”
Joshua, who is the son of British-Nigerian parents, attended a boarding school in Ikenne, 85km (53 miles) from where the crash happened, before returning to Britain at age 12.
The British boxer has been spending time in Nigeria after his fight with YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul on December 19, which Joshua won by sixth-round knockout.
Joshua had returned to the ring after a 15-month layoff. He is expected to fight longtime rival Tyson Fury in 2026.
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