Anthony Joshua showed his class by paying for one of his sparring partners to fly home to Croatia after his family were involved in a car accident.
Joshua, who rematches Oleksandr Usyk this Saturday in Saudi Arabia, relied upon Croatian heavyweight Marko Milun as one of the main sparring partners to prepare for Usyk. Milun was unfortunately not able to see out the whole training camp with Joshua as he flew home due to his family being involved in the accident.
Milun, who also helped Joshua prepare for his first fight with Usyk, revealed the Brit and his team immediately booked him a flight back to Croatia on the same day as his family's accident. "My family had a car accident and they booked my flight immediately for three hours back to Croatia. They are very friendly and they helped me with everything," Milun told BoyleSports.
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The Croatian boxer thankfully revealed his family was ok after the scare, although his sisters do need to have surgery after sustaining injuries in the accident. "I missed the last sparring because of the accident. I thank all the AJ team for their help. Now my family is OK, my sisters need an operation, but they are not in danger and that's the most important thing," he added.
Joshua is hoping to become a three-time heavyweight champion by winning his belts back against Usyk. The Brit has changed his coaching team for the rematch and looks to come up with a different gameplan to hand Usyk his first professional loss. Milun said his sparring sessions with Joshua were "explosive" and is confident the Brit will be able to rise to the occasion on Saturday night.
"This time the whole camp is different. It's not the same. We spared maybe 15 rounds, very good rounds and it was explosive. I enjoyed it. Not like last time - everything was different. Coaches are different, his training is different, from the small things to the big things. He is hungry now, he wants to win badly," Milun added.
"I think he will handle the pressure. He's a two-time world champion and Olympic champion. For him the pressure is normal. I told AJ you need to bully Usyk, you can't box him. Everybody knows that. Maybe Usyk will expect that - he looks heavier this time but not heavier than AJ. He only lost by four rounds last time. It's not too much. If he catches him in those 12 rounds with a little bit of pressure he can knock out Usyk."
