Anthony Joshua Sustains Minor Injuries in Deadly Car Crash

Anthony Joshua, the British heavyweight boxing champion who broke Jake Paul’s jaw live on Netflix earlier this month, sustained minor injuries in a December 29 car crash in Nigeria that killed two people, local authorities have confirmed. Police told the BBC that Joshua is “fine” and was taken to a hospital to receive medical attention. According to a statement from Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps, preliminary findings indicate that Joshua was a passenger in a Lexus SUV that is suspected to have been speeding on the Ogun-Lagos state expressway before it “lost control,” crashing into a stationary truck on the side of the road. An eyewitness told Nigerian newspaper The Punch that Joshua was seated behind the driver, and video circulating on social media appears to show the boxer shirtless and grimacing in pain from the back seat of a wrecked car. In total, officials said five adult men were involved in the crash, with two killed, Joshua injured, and two others not hurt.

Joshua — whose full name is Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua — has family in Sagamu, a town in Nigeria’s Ogun State. An unnamed relative told the BBC that he had been traveling from Lagos to his family home for the holidays. “He’s normally coming around for the New Year. We haven’t seen him, so we were expecting him,” they explained. News of the crash has come “as a shock” to the family, the relative said, adding, “We are hoping for his speedy recovery, and also the people who passed away — I pray for the departed to rest in peace.”