New York State

LOVE Island star Wil Anderson intends to make a statement when he fights Jordan Banjo next month, insisting it will be an “absolute war”.

The two fighters will lace up their gloves on a Misfits card in Leeds on April 12 and Wil, 23, says he won’t be happy unless he knocks Jordan, 32, out.

Instagram/@wilandersonn

Wil Anderson will go to war with Jordan Banjo next month[/caption]

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Jordan has been training hard with high quality sparring[/caption]

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, he says: “I don’t think there’s any favourites, to be honest.

“I think it’s both our debuts. It’s a very even match-up, and obviously I back myself. I think if I don’t see his head bounce off the canvas, then I won’t be happy. But I think it’ll make for a great, great fight, an absolute war.”

The fight features on a stellar card headlined by another former Islander, Idris Virgo, and Tyson Fury‘s sparring partner Ty Mitchell.

But Wil, 23, thinks his clash could top all those around it when the two big TV stars come to blows in the ring.

“I believe that mine and Jordan’s fight could be possibly the most interesting fight on that card,” he says.

“Solely down to the fact that we’re both debutants, but both pretty decent boxers. So I think it’s going to make for an absolute war. And yeah, the other fights on the card are great.

Despite his vow to floor Jordan, he has nothing but respect for his opponent and says there’ll be no shenanigans in the build up to rival Chris Eubank Jr’s recent press conference with bitter rival Conor Benn.

Eubank divided opinion when he cracked an egg on his opponent’s face – a swipe at Benn’s failed drug test in 2022. Benn maintains the discovery of the fertility drug, Clomiphene, in his urine was due to the amount of eggs he was consuming at the time. He has since been cleared of doping.

Wil said: “Me and Jordan have spoken before, actually, so there’s no bad blood there. But I do think we’ll be able to put on a great show for everyone.

“I’ve met him before, and he’s a great guy, so a good opponent to have.”

Jordan rose to fame as a member of dance troupe Diversity, winning Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 alongside brother Ashley.

He’s since gone on to have a successful media career starring in I’m A Celebrity and landing his own radio show with Diversity’s Perri Kiely on Kiss.

Asked if he’s worried about potentially being portrayed as the villain leading into the bout, Wil says: “The villain could be either one of us, to be honest. It depends how the process goes.

“I don’t mind being whichever character they want to assign me as. I just want to get in there and do a job.”

It’s all been a long time coming.

For seven long months since starring in the villa Wil has been quietly training and biding his time to find an opponent.

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Wil found fame last summer on Love Island[/caption]

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The Whitley Bay lad is in a relationship with Uma Jammeh[/caption]

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They met in the villa and she will be ringside in Leeds[/caption]

“It hasn’t exactly gone as smoothly as I thought,” he admits. “I couldn’t quite match up with anyone. And then I got a phone call, well, the night before it was announced, and got offered the fight with Jordan.

“And Jordan’s just such a big name, I think it’ll make for a great fight. Obviously, I only got a month’s prep, so that was one thing I had to take into consideration. But I think the opportunity just overshadowed that, to be honest.”

The fight announcement came just days after Wil called out Curtis Pritchard following the pro dancer’s admission he’d like to step in the ring.

Wil branded him a “fool” and mocked his famously cringeworthy cameo in Hollyoaks, but it failed to entice Curtis into a war of words.

However, Wil isn’t ruling out a showdown in the future.

He says: “So I saw him come out and say, Oh, you know he wants to do a bit of boxing. I thought, well, I’m sat here waiting to do it as well. So why not the two of us?

“But I had a feeling that he wouldn’t want to fight me to be honest. And I don’t blame him, to be fair, but hopefully, sometime in the future he might pluck up the courage to get in the ring with us. I don’t know but I might be on to bigger and better things by then.”

Come fight night, Wil will have strong support from family, friends and girlfriend Uma Jammeh.

The Love Island sweethearts have been inseparable since leaving the villa and Wil expects it to be a special night for him and his nearest and dearest.

“They’ll be nervous, but they’ll be confident in me because they know what I’m capable of, and they know how much I want this,” he says.

“I think more than anything, they’ll just be proud and happy that I’m there, and I’ve made it to where I want to be.”

BOXER Mauricio Lara has been handed a two-year ban after failing a drugs test before his loss to Leigh Wood.

Lara brutally knocked out Wood in February 2023 and they rematched just three months later.

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Mauricio Lara has been handed a two-year ban after failing a drugs test[/caption]

But the Mexican was this time beaten on points – losing his WBA featherweight title.

Lara has fought just once more since – drawing to Daniel Lugo in Mexico in February of last year.

But it has now emerged that Lara failed a UK Anti-Doping test before his rematch loss to Wood – landing himself a two-year ban.

His suspension is backdated to the start date of his provisional suspension and so will expire on March 6th, 2026.

UKAD posted: “Mexican professional boxer Mauricio Lara has been banned from all World Anti-Doping Code-compliant sport for two years, following Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) for the Presence and Use of a Prohibited Substance.”

Lara tested positive for betamethasone – known to treat inflammation and pain.

The 27-year-old claimed the positive test was caused by an injection into his shoulder on 12 May in the build-up to the Wood fight.

But Ukad said that did not explain how betamethasone entered his system.

Lara shot to notoriety overnight when he knocked out Josh Warrington in 2021.

There rematch then ended in a no-contest due to a cut in round two to Lara’s eye.

Lara beat Wood, 36, for the WBA title but lost it in the immediate rematch.

Richard Pelham / The Sun

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Lara lost the rematch on points[/caption]

ROYAL family members are typically the picture of elegance, but there have been moments when they’ve been spotted doing a rather unroyal habit – smoking.

From Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, a number of the famous family have been known to love a crafty fag, even if they have given up now.

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This is despite the late Queen being strongly against the bad habit, particularly as her father, King George VI, died of lung cancer in 1952.

This was after three previous monarchs, George V, Edward VII and Edward VIII, all passed away from smoking-related illnesses.

Meanwhile, the Queen’s own sister Princess Margaret was known to smoke up to 60 cigarettes a day, which led to a lung operation in 1985.

Never afraid of speaking her mind, the party-loving royal refused to bow down to pressure from both doctors and members of her family to ditch smoking.

However, it is reported she cut down to 30 a day, rather than 60, before her death in 2002.

King Charles is reportedly responsible for revoking the royal warrant for tobacco firm Gallaher in 1998.

But, which nicotine-loving royal family members have been known to love a smoke…

Prince Harry

Despite being pictured puffing on a cigarette in the past, Prince Harry has allegedly kicked the habit since tying the knot with Meghan Markle in 2018.

He wasn’t a frequent smoker but was occasionally pictured lighting up, including one time outside a pub in London‘s exclusive Chelsea area on his 31st birthday.

A source told the New York Daily News at the time: “It’s no secret among friends that they want to start a family immediately.

“One of the reasons she got him to quit smoking is because smoking affects sperm production.”

In his bombshell memoir Spare, Prince Harry admitted he indulged in joints in 2020 while staying at US actor Tyler Perry’s house in Los Angeles, after quitting royal life.

He wrote: “Late at night, with everyone asleep, I’d walk the house, checking the doors and windows. Then I’d sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint.

“The house looked down onto a valley, across a hillside thick with frogs. I’d listen to their late-night song, smell the scented air.”

Two of his previous girlfriends – Chelsy Davy, who he dated between 2004 to 2011, and Cressida Bonas, who he was with from 2012 to 2014 – have also been pictured smoking in the past.

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Harry’s ex Cressida Bonas has also lit up in the last[/caption]

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Chelsy Davy – who Harry dated between 2004 to 2011 – has also smoked[/caption]

Meghan Markle

Although she is the picture of wellness and health now, the Duchess of Sussex, who has been pictured smoking in the past, once boasted to pals about how she’d serve illegal marijuana at her first wedding.

Leaked emails reveal plans to put the dope in party bags at her nuptials to Trevor Engelson.

Urged to buy a certain type of bag by a pal, the Duchess replied: “Already ordered ’em. And teeny ones for the pot that say ‘shh’.”

The American actress even personally ordered small muslin bags for the illegal drug to be placed inside glitzy gift bags to guests.

The future Duchess then signed off to the friend with a jokey smiley face.

Meghan’s estranged father Thomas revealed last month that guests at the wedding in Jamaica were given a bag of marijuana.

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Meghan Markle boasted about giving out 200 marijuana joints at her wedding to first husband Trevor Engelson[/caption]

At the time of the wedding in 2012 any possession of cannabis was illegal in Jamaica.

A guest added that although she was “very excited” about surprising guests with marijuana, it was more of a gimmick and she did not smoke too much herself.

The guest said: “It didn’t seem like it was really her thing.

“Trevor and his friends definitely had more experience with it. I think she is more of a champagne and rose kind of girl. It almost looked like she didn’t know how to smoke.”

Queen Camilla

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King Charles is said to have stopped wife Queen Camilla from lighting up too, after she was known to puff 40 a day, as reported by the Daily Mail. 

Royal expert Tina Brown claimed that Camilla loved cigarettes so much that she would “furtively smoke up the chimney”, so Charles wouldn’t catch her.

In the past, royal footmen have been instructed to put silver cigarette boxes from her favourite brand in every room of her house.

Meanwhile, royal biographer Angela Levin claimed that Camilla was known to frequent posh members club Annabel’s in Mayfair, London, which has “the world’s most luxurious cigar room”.

However, she kicked the habit in 2001 and allegedly told a pal: “It wasn’t so much me giving up smoking, rather smoking giving up on me.”

Queen Camilla told Paddington actress Emily Mortimer in November 2024, that she “quit 20 years ago.”

Meanwhile, her son, Tom Parker Bowles, 50, insisted that she “doesn’t smoke” and has “never drunk a glass of gin in her life”.

Princess Eugenie

Photo News Ltd

Photo News Ltd

In her younger days, Princess Eugenie – daughter of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew – was also spotted with a cigarette.

One such example was in 2009 at the age of 19 during her gap year in Sydney, Australia.

Onlookers told the Daily Mail that she had pulled “a packet of cigarettes out of her bag” and started smoking it.

A bystander said: “She wasn’t chain smoking but she is clearly more than just a social smoker.”

Mum-of-two Eugenie has reportedly since given up the habit.

Prince Philip

Being married to a monarch comes with its sacrifices, and smoking was an example of this for Prince Philip.

The long-serving consort was known to love smoking in his younger days, but gave it up on the morning of his wedding.

This was after his bachelor party at the Dorchester Hotel in November 1947 where he was pictured sharing cigars with Lord Mountbatten and his private secretary Michael Parker.

Bryan Kozlowski wrote in his book Long Live the Queen: 23 Rules For Living From Britain’s Longest Reigning Monarch: “Understandably, Elizabeth was adamant that Philip give up the habit that wreaked her father’s health.

“Previously a heavy smoker himself, Philip obliged with phenomenal efficiency, going from a pack a day to quitting cold turkey on his wedding day.”

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