Former world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, escaped death by the whiskers, Monday morning, when his Lexus jeep crashed into a stationary truck, leaving two people dead.
The 36-year-old former champion, who was on a 10-day holiday, was travelling to his home town, Sagamu, Ogun State, when the accident occurred at about 11.a.m. around the Danco Filling Station, near the Shagamu interchange on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, said an eye witness.
The accident came 10 days after AJ, as the Britain-born Nigerian boxer is popularly known, pummeled Jake Paul to submission in six rounds in Miami, and was projected to return to the ring in February 2026, ahead of a potential bout with Tyson Fury later in the year.
With AJ now in hospital, though with “minor injuries”, all that now seems to be in the air.
The BBC has reported Anthony Joshua’s team as saying that it was looking into the incident, just as the Commissioner of the Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Lanre Ogunlowo, confirmed that an investigation has been launched into the crash.
“I can confirm to you that an accident occurred and the victim has been taken to the hospital,” Ogunlowo told the BBC.
Footage of the accident has gone viral on social media showing Anthony Joshua, a passenger in the Lexus in a convoy, appearing dazed and in pain at the scene of the incident, both in and out of the car that reportedly hit a truck.
The Punch newspaper quoted an eye witness who captured the moment the Lexus Jeep carrying the former champion hit the stationary truck with registration number KRD 850 HN.
The first responder said that Joshua sustained minor injuries while two others died on the spot.
“It was a two-vehicle convoy: a Lexus SUV and a Pajero SUV. Joshua was seated behind the driver, with another person beside him,” the eyewitness told the Punch. “A passenger sat beside the driver, making four occupants in the Lexus that crashed. His security detail followed in the vehicle behind.
“Other eyewitnesses and I began the rescue and flagged down oncoming vehicles for help. Minutes after the crash, Federal Road Safety Corps officials arrived. The passenger beside the driver and the person beside Joshua died on the spot.”
In a statement, the spokesperson of the Ogun State Police Command said:
“The Ogun State Police Command confirms a road accident today in front of Sinoma, before Danco, along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway. Anthony Joshua and other injured persons have been rushed to the hospital.
“Further updates will be communicated.
