Unbeaten IBF heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, has banned his mum, Yeta Odusanya, from Wembley stadium, venue of Saturday’s superfight with Wladimir Klitschko.
Joshua, 27, has not allowed his mother to fights since the London 2012 Olympics because he is worried she would distract him in the ring.
Instead, Yeta will be a couple of miles away at home in north London on the strict orders of her son.
Joshua posted a picture of him bracing his old dear on Twitter alongside the message: “See you on Sunday mum x.”
His father, Robert, will be at Wembley, but Yeta will wait at home for the phone call, telling her the fight is over.
“My old man will be there again, but I don’t really let my mum come to my fights,” said Joshua. “I’ve banned her. It’s not a place where you want to see your kid, I don’t think, at a fight. My dad can watch it, but not my mum.
“She is confident enough in me to watch, but I would rather she not be there. One of my cousins will call her after the fight. She enjoys it all, though, and she gets a few freebies.”
He might be multi-million pound athlete and brand, but Joshua still lives with Yeta, a social worker, on a modest street in north London. “We’re very close, we always have been from day one, he’s my only son,” said Joshua’s mum.
“We live together and he’s always looking out for me. I still can’t watch his fights, I get really nervous and I do worry about him.”
