Boxer Anthony Joshua is preparing to return to training camp for a summer comeback fight, with a potential Tyson Fury showdown.
Joshua, 36, last fought on December 19 when he stopped YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in six rounds. But ten days after that victory, tragedy struck when the former world champion was involved in a horror road crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of two of his close friends — Kevin ‘Latz’ Ayodele and recovery therapist Sina Ghami.
Joshua survived the accident but has since been recovering from injuries sustained in the accident while also grieving the loss of the two men.
But the two-time heavyweight champion has been training at Finchley – his first amateur gym – with promoter Eddie Hearn teasing a summer fight.
He told iFL TV: “We’re very close to returning to training camp.
“And I feel like AJ is physically and perhaps mentally ready to throw himself back in to that environment.
“And it’s exciting, I mean, for everything that he’s been through and all the pain, I don’t think that will leave.
“But he has a career and he has a job to do in that respect, which he wants to continue doing. And I’m excited to see him back.
“I feel like with fighters – some may disagree watching this – but generally I feel like they’re at their happiest when they’re in training camp.
“Like everything’s there. The regiment is there, the discipline is there, the focus is there, intention’s there, the end goal is there.
“And although it’s a lot of hard work, I really feel like AJ as well when he’s in training camp, that’s him.”
Joshua, 36, had initially been in talks to return to Saudi Arabia to set up a summer showdown with Fury.
Fury faces Arslanbek Makhmudov in his comeback bout at Tottenham’s stadium on April 11.
And Hearn believes AJ is likely to fight first before taking on Fury – but warned not to rule out jumping straight into the Battle of Britain.
He said: “The March fight now becomes probably July, and if the Fury fight is still there, that probably becomes November, something like that.
“So there’s been discussions about going straight into a Fury fight. Obviously, he’s got his fight against Makhmudov.
“With everything that’s happened, I expect him to have a fight first and that fight to come in the summer.
“But you never know how he feels, and you might feel fantastic, and he might say, ‘Let’s let’s go straight in.’ I don’t think so.
“Given the fact that he only had a few rounds against Jake Paul and everything that’s happened as well, unfortunately.
“But until he gets back into training camp, there’ll be there’ll be no decisions on the actual route that we take.”
