A widely shared video purporting to show former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua announcing his retirement from boxing has been debunked as a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) manipulation. The clip, which gained significant traction on social media platforms including Facebook, featured a distraught Joshua claiming he was stepping away from the sport due to grief over the deaths of two associates in a recent car accident on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, stating, “They have left this world because of me. Therefore, I have officially decided to step away from boxing,” and, “Because the moment I step into the ring, their faces appear in my mind, and that grief completely crushes me.”
Fact-checkers at TheCable identified the footage as a composite of several independent clips, including spliced segments from a 2022 press conference, combined with an AI-generated voice-over synced to the boxer’s mouth.
The analysis confirmed the video is fabricated, noting that Joshua, who was discharged from the hospital on December 31 following the real and tragic accident, has not made any public statements since the crash. The verdict concludes the viral retirement announcement is entirely false and AI-generated.