Anthony Joshua has been called ‘dangerous, reckless and stupid’ by boxing legend Johnny Nelson for sharing golf buggy stunts online eight months after surviving a car crash that killed two of his closest friends.
The former world heavyweight champion has been on holiday in the Dominican Republic before he begins preparations for his long-awaited blockbuster showdown against his compatriot Tyson Fury.
But the Briton caught heat for sharing a video of himself racing golf buggies with friends, and at one point, appearing to attempt to climb between the two moving vehicles.
‘Loser do 100 press-ups,’ Joshua captioned the video.
Joshua was devastated by the loss of his best friends Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele last December, after the trio were involved in a car crash near Lagos.
After watching the social media video however, Nelson told Boxing King Media that it ‘begs belief’ that Joshua believed he should post the clip online for his followers.
Anthony Joshua has been criticised by boxing legend Johnny Nelson after sharing a video of himself ‘recklessly’ driving golf buggies
The boxing star was involved in a fatal car accident in Nigeria last December which took the life of two of his closest friends
‘I saw it, and I put my head in my hands,’ the former world champion said. ‘I thought, ‘what are you thinking? What are you doing, man?’
‘I know you’re young, I know you want to live life, but to understand what’s just happened to you… As a parent, I’d think – you know, I cussed out my daughter, she was in Bali, on the back of a motorbike without permission. I cussed out my daughter. And it reminded me of what happened with AJ over the Christmas period.
‘And then I see AJ doing this. I’m like, ‘you’re not thinking. What is wrong with you?’ And regardless of how much you try and play it off – thinking, ‘s***, I probably shouldn’t have posted that’ – you shouldn’t have been doing that thing.
‘It looked dangerous, it looked reckless. And people have looked and thought: ‘You know what, this guy must have been through it.’ Now people are thinking, ‘you’re an idiot’. And he’s got to think, ‘maybe I’ve got to fall on my sword here. It’s a stupid thing I did.
‘Post it or not, it was just a stupid thing to do. It had danger written all over it, you can see the worst-case scenario. When I saw it, I thought like a parent; I thought: “I hope your old man has a word with you, I hope your mum cusses you out. I just hope they have a strong word with you, because that was reckless, irresponsible and dangerous.”
‘After everything that’s happened, to do something like that, it begs belief.’
Nelson added that he believed that Joshua would be unable to be ‘p***ed off’ with people who criticised the post.
‘You’ve got people’s pity, you’ve got people’s understanding,’ Nelson stressed. ‘And then you do something like that.’
Joshua has been deeply affected by the death of his friends and surviving the fatal crash himself, with the accident coming just ten days after he took down YouTuber-turned-boxing star Jake Paul.
Upon his return to the ring in late July with his fight against Kristian Prenga, Joshua broke down during his post-fight interview as he credited Ayodele and Ghami for getting him through a tough first round.
‘I don’t want to talk about it anymore,’ Joshua had said quietly as he let out his emotions.
Earlier in the evening he had stepped into the ring wearing his friends’ names on pennants pinned to his chest and had admitted before the fight that he had spent months suppressing the pain of their loss.
Joshua has spoken out about the grief he has experienced after the deaths of Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele
Joshua was being driven along one of Nigeria’s deadliest roads in December when his SUV crashed into a stationary truck on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The 36-year-old is thought to have narrowly escaped major injury or worse after having switched to sit behind the driver in the back seat on the left-hand side of the car.
Joshua was admitted to hospital with ‘minor injuries’ after being pulled from the wreckage of the crash.
In February, Joshua added the names of ‘LATZ’ and ‘SINA’ to the tattoo outline of Africa he sports on his bicep.
A month earlier, he had stressed his commitment to the families of his friends in a touching Instagram video which also took in his bond with both men.
‘My goal is to help their families and to help them achieve their goals, even though they may not be here in the physical,’ Joshua told his fans. ‘I will be saying my prayers, and I’m going to help them fulfill their dreams for their families. It’s not only me though helping. There’s a whole team working on that stuff.
‘There is a whole system that will be helping fulfill their legacy, fulfill their dreams. But I know in my corner of the world, I know what I’m doing, and I know what we’re gonna do to continue there.
‘I’m gonna do what’s right by their family. It’s about what’s important to me, and they’re very important players, very important team, with very important friends and two of my brothers.
‘So yeah, I don’t think I’ve mentioned the love and appreciation. It’s all acknowledged by me, by them, by their families. 100 per cent we acknowledge the 1000s, maybe going into millions around the world that show so much love to them both. I still can’t get my head around it.
‘We heard you all, we saw the messages, the tweets, the social media, the YouTubes, the prayers, it’s all been acknowledged. So yeah, we know what we’re going to do. Mumma Latz, Mumma Sina, Pappa Latz, Pappa Sina, one love.’
Joshua’s video clip of his golf buggy exploits comes hours after it was announced that Joshua and Fury were understood to have signed contracts to fight on November 20 in New York.
He paid tribute to his friends before his fight against Kristian Prenga by wearing their names on a bar on his chest
The 36-year-old also added their names to his tattoo of the African continent on his bicep
Fury took to social media on Tuesday morning to tease the announcement, telling his followers that the fight was on the verge of being publicised.
He said: ‘Big news being dropped very, very soon. A big fight on the horizon. It’s the one you’ve all been waiting for. It’s about to be announced imminently so stay tuned!’
While those close to the negotiations have told Daily Mail Sport that the blockbuster bout is done, with New York’s Madison Square Garden understood to have been agreed as the venue, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn has insisted there is still work to be done on the deal.
Those familiar with the discussions say Joshua and his promoter Hearn continued to push for the fight to take place in the UK, with Fury also keen on a homecoming bout, but they were ultimately unable to secure their preferred location.
However, Hearn – who recently revealed it was written into Joshua’s contract that the fight has to be staged in Britain – has told Daily Mail Sport that no agreement has yet been reached to change those terms.
