Eddie Hearn believes supporting the families of the friends lost in last December’s car crash has given Anthony Joshua added motivation to succeed in his latest comeback, reports skysports.com.
Joshua takes on Albanian Kristian Prenga in Jeddah on July 25, his first appearance since being involved in a car crash last December that killed two of his training team.
The two-time heavyweight champion took an extended period away after the deaths of Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, both childhood friends, with initial doubts about whether Joshua would return to boxing.
Joshua vowed he will be “stronger than ever” when he faces Prenga, ahead of a potential showdown with Tyson Fury later in the year, while his promoter Hearn believes the 36-year-old can use the loss of his two friends as fuel to perform.
“They’re billing this fight as the comeback – he only fought six months ago, but this is one of the greatest comebacks, because of where he was physically, mentally, emotionally,” Hearn told Sky Sports. “He stepped up to the plate and he never shied away from it.
“He comes back with so much vengeance and emotion because he does it for Sina (Ghami) and ‘Latz’ (Latif) Ayodele. The strength and the support that he’s given to the family, is absolute priority to him.
“Every day he’s in there training harder than you can imagine in this training camp to achieve his dreams. We need to celebrate great individuals, great athletes, but also people with a never-say-die attitude, like Anthony, who’s got it all.
“He’s got all the money in the world. He’s a two-time world heavyweight champion. Yet he’s over there (in Spain), away from everybody, in isolation, training three times a day till he can’t train any more. He wants it more now than he’s ever wanted it before.”
Joshua said in Monday’s press conference he was putting aside his own emotions to be “a good soldier” for the grieving parents of Ghami and Ayodele, with Hearn confirming that helping others continues to be Joshua’s primary concern.
“There is absolutely no doubt those two great men (Ghami and Ayodele) would have wanted AJ to come back even stronger through this,” Hearn added.
“AJ’s top priority is to protect and support those people. Probably a priority over the fight and everything and, like I said, he has stepped up to that plate. Even when the accident happened, even when the injuries had occurred, the only thing on his mind was to be there for other people
“What people didn’t see was not just the emotional pain and the mental pain, but the physical pain that he was in from that accident. It was only two or three weeks after that, he was back in rehab.
“He wants it more now than when he didn’t have anything. Before Olympic championships, before World Championship silvers, when he was just in Finchley and he was dreaming one day of bettering his life and making money and becoming a world champion.
“He wants it more now when he’s got everything. What does that tell you about the individual? It tells you he’s a true competitor – but you’ve got to be good enough.
“Now he’s got to go in there and he’s got to brutalise (Kristian) Prenga on July 25. We’ve got to go into that Fury fight with momentum and that aggression and that volatility to go and do a job on Tyson Fury.”
