Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua (p. Olympic champion of the 30th Olympic Games-2012 in the weight category over 91 kg. World champion according to "IBF" (2016-2019, 2019), "WBA" (2017-2019), "WBO" (2018, 2019) ), IBO (2017-2019) among heavyweights, awarded the Order of the British Empire.

There are many interesting facts in the biography of Anthony Joshua, which we will talk about in this article.

So, here is a short biography of Joshua.

Biography of Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua was born on October 15, 1989 in the English city of Watford. He grew up in a simple family that has nothing to do with sports.

The boxer's father, Robert, is of Nigerian and Irish descent. The mother, Eta Odusanii, is a Nigerian social worker.

Childhood and youth

Anthony spent the first years of his life in Nigeria, where his parents were from. In addition to him, the boy Jacob and 2 girls - Loretta and Janet were born in the Joshua family.

Anthony returned to the UK when it was time to go to school. During this period of his biography, he was fond of football and athletics.

The young man possessed strength, endurance and great speed. An interesting fact is that during his school years he covered the 100-meter distance in just 11.6 seconds!

After receiving his high school diploma, Joshua went to work at a local brick factory.

At the age of 17, the guy went to London. The next year, on the advice of his cousin, he began going to boxing.

Every day Anthony liked boxing more and more. At that time, his idols were Muhammad Ali and Conor McGregor.

Amateur boxing

Initially, Anthony managed to win victories over his rivals. However, when he entered the ring against Dillian White, Joshua suffered his first defeat as an amateur boxer.

An interesting fact is that in the future, White will also become a professional boxer and meet again with Anthony.

In 2008, Joshua won the Haringey Cup. The following year, he won the England ABAE Heavyweight Championship.

In 2011, the athlete took part in the World Championship held in the capital of Azerbaijan. He reached the final, losing on points to Magomedrasul Majidov.

Despite the defeat, Anthony Joshua got the opportunity to participate in the upcoming Olympics, which was to be held in his homeland. As a result, the Briton managed to perform brilliantly in the competition and win a gold medal.

Professional boxing

Joshua became a professional boxer in 2013. In the same year, his first opponent was Emanuel Leo.

In this fight, Anthony won a landslide victory, knocking out Leo in the first round.

After that, the boxer spent 5 more fights, which he also won by knockouts. In 2014, he met with former British champion Matt Skelton, over whom he won.

In the same year, Joshua won the WBC International title, being stronger than Denis Bakhtov.

In 2015, Anthony entered the ring against American Kevin Jones. The Briton knocked down his opponent twice, conducting a successful series of blows. As a result, the referee was forced to stop the fight.

An interesting fact is that the defeat to Joshua was the first and only early defeat in Jones's sports biography.

Then Anthony knocked out the Scotsman Gary Cornish, invincible until that moment. It is worth noting that this happened in the first round.

At the end of 2015, a so-called rematch took place between Joshua and Dillian White. Anthony remembered his defeat from White when he was still playing in amateur boxing, so he wanted to "take revenge" on him by all means.

From the first seconds of the fight, both boxers began to attack each other. Although Joshua had the initiative, he almost got knocked down by missing a left hook from Dillian.

The denouement of the meeting took place in the 7th round. Anthony held a strong right side to the temple of the opponent, who was still able to stay on his feet. Then he shook White with a right uppercut, after which he fell to the floor and could not recover for a long time.

As a result, Joshua inflicted his first career defeat on his compatriot.

In the spring of 2016, Anthony entered the ring against the IBF World Champion American Charles Martin. In this meeting, the British turned out to be the strongest again, defeating Martin by knockout in the second round.

Thus Joshua became the new IBF champion. A couple of months later, the athlete defeated Dominic Brizil, who had also been considered undefeated before.

The next victim of Anthony was the American Eric Molina. It took the Briton 3 rounds to defeat Molina.

In 2017, the legendary fight with Vladimir Klitschko took place. Its culmination began in the 5th round, when Joshua delivered a series of accurate punches, knocking down the opponent.

After that, Klitschko responded with no less effective attacks and in the 6th round Anthony was knocked down. And although the boxer got up from the floor, he looked very confused.

The next 2 rounds were for Vladimir, but then Joshua took the initiative into his own hands. In the penultimate round, he sent Klitschko to a heavy knockdown. The Ukrainian got to his feet, but after a few seconds he fell again.

And although Vladimir found the strength to continue the battle, everyone understood that he had actually lost it. As a result, after this defeat, Klitschko announced his retirement from boxing.

After that, Anthony defended his belts in a duel with Cameroonian boxer Carlos Takam. For the victory over the enemy, he received $ 20 million.

An interesting fact is that the boxer knocked out his opponent, thereby surpassing Mike Tyson's record. He was able to win early for the 20th time in a row, while Tyson stopped at 19.

In 2018, Joshua was stronger than Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin, whom he defeated by TKO in the 7th round.

The following year, in the sports biography of Anthony Joshua, the first defeat occurred against Andy Ruiz, to whom he lost by technical knockout. It is worth noting that a rematch is planned in the future.

Personal life

As of 2020, Joshua is not married to anyone. Prior to that, he met with the dancer Nicole Osborne.

Disagreements often arose between young people, as a result of which they sometimes converged, then diverged again.

In 2015, the couple had a boy, Joseph Bailey. As a result, Anthony became a single father, finally breaking up with Osborne. At the same time, he bought an apartment for her in London for half a million pounds.

In his free time, Joshua is fond of tennis and chess. In addition, he loves to read books, trying to broaden his horizons.