Anthony Joshua's heartwarming offer comes to light as funeral gesture shared

paid for the funeral of Kevin Mitchell's brother Vinny after he had lost his life in a motorbike accident five-and-a-half years ago. The former British champion boxer has revealed how Joshua spoke to his mother over the phone and helped the family at their time of need.

Like his brother, Vinny was a professional boxer and fought on the undercard ahead of Kevin's world title fight against Michael Katsidis at Upton Park in 2015.

He was tragically killed at the age of 31 when his motorbike collided with a tree in Dagenham, Essex, in April 2019.

Speaking to , Mitchell explained: "He had so much pressure on him Josh, and let me tell you something - I've not said this to anyone before on podcast - but he paid for my brother's funeral.

"He knew my brother, he knew me, he knew my mum. He rung me up when we was 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 Josh - it's life mate.' Then he was like, 'Is your mum there? Can I speak to her please?'

"As we're sitting around the table grieving - bad emotions and we're all about to kick off - and we're all worried about burying my brother, how will we get money, we 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.

"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."

Vinny Mitchell was survived by his four children. And at the time of his passing, Kevin wrote on X (formerly Twitter): "There's not many things I can say to say how heartbroken I am.

"I love you Vinny Mitchell, I promise I'll make sure your kids will know who their dad was. It kills me. See you again some day brother."

A whole host of people in the boxing community paid tribute to Vinny after his death, with promoter Eddie Hearn writing: "So sorry to hear about the passing of Vinny Mitchell this evening. All our thoughts are with Kevin Mitchell and the Mitchell family."

And Tony Bellew's ex-trainer David Coldwell, said: "So sorry to hear the terrible news about Vinny Mitchell. My thoughts are with Kevin and the rest of the family."