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Anthony Joshua paid for the funeral of the brother of former boxer Kevin Mitchell, it has been revealed.
Mitchell, who became the British super featherweight champion in 2008 and lost two world title bids in 2015, disclosed the touching gesture while speaking on the That Josh James Show podcast.
Mitchell’s younger brother Vinny, who also boxed professionally, died in a motorcyle accident in 2019, aged 31.
“I’ve not said this to anyone before on a podcast, but he paid for my brother’s funeral,” said Mitchell.
“He knew my brother, he knew me, he knew my mum. He rang me up when we were in the chapel of rest in Dagenham East and he said ‘Kev, how are you? You’re a strong b****** aren’t you’. I said, ‘You have to be, it’s life mate’. Then he was like, ‘Is your mum there? Can I speak to her please?’
“We’re sitting around the table grieving, bad emotions and we’re all about to kick off. We’re all worried about burying my brother, how will we get money, we’ve got mortgages to pay, no one’s working but the bills have still got to be paid, so we’re all aggressive and hot tempered, your emotions are like that.
“I was so stressed, I was under a lot of pressure and he went, ‘Alice, do you mind if I get it?’ She said, ‘What do you mean?’ My mum didn’t quite hear him. And he went, ‘I’m going to pay for his funeral, Alice, if you don’t mind. And he paid for it.”
Joshua is currently plotting a way back into the ring after a chastening defeat by Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium. Dubois dropped Joshua four times en route to a fifth-round victory in September, retaining the IBF heavyweight title.
A rematch clause was revealed after the fight, allowing “AJ” a second shot at his fellow Briton, but there are other options on the table for Dubois, his promoter has said.
“He’ll fight next year – early next year – and we are just looking at a few matches,” Frank Warren told Talksport on Tuesday. “I hope we get it done by next week, who he’ll be facing, but he’s going to defend his title.
“And we’ll see who it’s going to be. It may be AJ, it may not. It depends, but whatever happens, he’ll be out. He’ll be facing someone, that’s for sure, and capitalising on what he did in that fight.
“I mean, I have no problem with that [Joshua rematch]. I’d have that fight all day long for him.”
