Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua, popularly called Anthony Joshua, a British Nigerian professional boxer and a member of the Order of the British Empire, born on October 15, 1989, currently holds the British and Commonwealth Heavyweight titles.
Growing up on the Meriden Estate in Garston, Hertfordshire, Joshua was called ‘Femi’ by his friends and former teachers, due to his middle name ‘Oluwafemi’.
The 27-year old excelled in football and athletics and broke the Year Nine 100m record with a time of 11.6 seconds. A late starter in boxing; Joshua began his boxing career in 2007, aged 18, following an encouragement from his cousin.
His club, Finchley ABC in Barnet, North London, is a home to professional heavyweight, Dereck Chisora.
Joshua won the 2009 and 2010 Haringey Box Cup. Also went ahead to claim the senior ABA Championships in 2010 and later turned down a whooping £50,000 to turn professional.
A bricklayer before taking up boxing as full-time sport in 2009, he was put on remand in Reading Prison for what he describes as “fighting and other crazy stuff”. He was made to wear an electronic tag on his ankle when released.
In March 2011, Joshua was pulled over by Police for speeding in Colindale, North London. He was found with 8ozs of herbal cannabis hidden in a sports bag in his Mercedes Benz. Charged with possession with intent to supply a class B drug, an offence that carries a maximum 14-year sentence. Joshua was suspended from GB boxing squad and was sentenced to a 12-month community order and 100 hours’ unpaid work after pleading guilty at crown court.
The prolific puncher is the second British Nigerian boxer, after James De Gale to win both a gold medal at the Olympics and a world title, as well as being the first British heavyweight to do so. He is also only the second boxer in history, after Joe Frazier, to win a professional world heavyweight title while still reigning as the Olympic champion at the top weight.
A novice at the 2012 London Olympics games despite being a world silver medallist. He received a tough draw in the last 16 of the super heavyweight event, in Cuban Erislandy Savon, ranked fourth in the world by AIBA, Felix Savon.
The home boxer battled through three tough rounds in his opening contest before being given the result 17:16. This decision caused some controversy with most observers believing Savon had clearly won the bout, while a few others taking the view that he had won on merit. Cammarelle, an adversary he had already beaten the previous year, Joshua grew into the fight and fought back to level the scores after the third round (18:18), Joshua was announced winner via count-back and the new Olympic champion. The final decision was criticised by some boxing experts, being defined as a “home decision”.
He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year honours for services to boxing.
On July 11, 2013, Joshua turned professional under the Match Room Sport promotional banner and made his professional debut on October 5, 2013, at the O2 Arena in London in the Main-Event of a card featuring Scott Quigg’s successful WBA super-bantamweight title defence against Yoandris Salinas, beating Italian Emanuel Leo by a TKO in the first round.
On September 12, 2015, Joshua won the vacant Commonwealth Heavyweight title by stopping unbeaten Gary Cornish in the first round at the O2 Arena.
Joshua defeated Dillan Whyte for the British Heavyweight title on December 12, 2015, while also defending his Commonwealth Heavyweight title for the first time. It is said that Joshua earned £3 million for the fight; he signed a new five-year mega deal with Match Room, which sees him take a share of the PPV revenue earned.
Known for his knockout punches, Joshua defeated Charles Martin the second round to win the IBF World Heavyweight title, his first professional world title, on April 9, 2016.
So far, AJ has 16 knockout victories from his 16 professional fights, winning the IBF heavyweight title in his last outing against Charles Martin on April 9, 2016.
But Joshua will be looking to maintain his unbeaten record when he fights Breazeale at The O2 on June 25.
Anthony Nlebem & James Angel
