NOT LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

AJ hopes JJ does not follow his lead and take up fight game

- MARTIN DOMIN

WHEN the time comes, Anthony Joshua will sit his young son down for the chat.

The same conversation fearful fighting fathers before him have had with children raised in the darkest corners of boxing gyms.

Joshua, who takes on former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia tonight, has twice reigned as heavyweight ruler and amassed a fortune large enough to support his family for generations to come.

But he will plead with football-mad son JJ, who will turn nine this year, to look beyond the fame and fortune and to recognise the pain and sacrifice a career in the ring has inflicted.

And where the likes of Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn failed, Joshua hopes to succeed in stopping his son stepping through the ropes.