Anthony Joshua

Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua (born 15 October 1989) is a British professional boxer.

Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua was born on 15 October 1989 in Watford, Hertfordshire, the son of Yeta and Robert Joshua.

His mother is Nigerian, while his father is of Nigerian and Irish ancestry.

Joshua's Nigerian background can be specifically traced back to the Yoruba people, amongst whom he is of aristocratic rank.

His cousin, Ben Ileyemi, is also a professional boxer.

A late starter in the sport, Joshua began boxing in 2007, aged 18, when his cousin suggested he take it up.

His club, Finchley ABC in Barnet, North London, is also home to professional heavyweight Derek Chisora.

In his next bout he fought 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medalist Zhang Zhilei, dropping his taller opponent in the middle round; Joshua won by 15:11 guaranteeing at least a bronze medal.

In the semi-final Joshua met Kazakh boxer Ivan Dychko, and despite Joshua's height disadvantage he won by 13:11 to gain a place in the Olympic final.

Joshua won the 2009 and 2010 Haringey Box Cup.

Joshua also won the senior ABA Championships in 2010, in only his 18th bout, and later turned down £50,000 to turn professional.

"Turning down that £50,000 was easy. I didn't take up the sport for money, I want to win medals."

He also went on to win the same tournament the following year.

In 2010 his domestic success earned him a place on the GB Boxing team and later the same year he became British amateur champion at the GB Championships after defeating Amin Isa.

As an amateur, Joshua represented England at the 2011 World Championships in the super-heavyweight division, winning a silver medal.

At the 2011 European Championships in June he beat the German Eric Brechlin 23:16 and the Irishman Cathal McMonagle 22:10 but was stopped by the Romanian southpaw Mihai Nistor after receiving several standing counts.

In October 2011 he was named Amateur Boxer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Club of Great Britain.

Joshua had an amateur record of 40–3.

During the 2011 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, Joshua marked his sudden arrival on the world scene when he beat Italian reigning world and Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle, and went on to stop Erik Pfeifer of Germany in the semis before losing by a single point to local boxer, Magomedrasul Majidov winning a silver medal.

He also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, winning gold.

En route to the final, Joshua secured his place at the 2012 Olympic Games in the super-heavyweight division as a relative newcomer to the elite level of the sport.

Joshua went into the 2012 London Olympics as a novice on the international scene, despite being a world silver medalist.

He received a tough draw in the last 16 of the super-heavyweight event in Cuban Erislandy Savón, ranked No. 4 in the world by AIBA and nephew of the three time Olympic champion Félix Savón.

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

whilst a few others taking the view that he had won on merit.

The pair made their professional debuts together in 2013.

Joshua spent some of his early years in Nigeria as a boarding school student at Mayflower School in Ikenne.

Following his parents' divorce when he was 12, he returned to the UK halfway through Year Seven to join Kings Langley Secondary School.

Growing up on the Meriden Estate in Garston, Hertfordshire, he was called "Femi" by his friends and former teachers, due to his middle name, Oluwafemi.

He excelled at football and athletics and broke his school's Year Nine 100 m record with a time of 11.6 seconds.

In 2014, a year after turning professional, he was named Prospect of the Year by The Ring magazine.

He has been ranked by BoxRec as among the world's top 10 heavyweights since 2014, and was ranked at No. 1 at the conclusion of 2016 and 2017.

Joshua's knockout-to-win percentage stands at 88%, with an overall knockout percentage of 58% in world heavyweight title fights.

At regional level, he held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles from 2015 to 2016.

He is a two-time former unified world heavyweight champion, having held the World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super version), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organization (WBO) titles twice between 2016 and 2021.

He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title twice during that reign.

In 2017, his victorious fight against Wladimir Klitschko was named Fight of the Year by The Ring and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Joshua is the second English boxer, after James DeGale, to win both a gold medal at the Olympics and a world title by a major professional sanctioning body, as well as the first English heavyweight to do so.

As of October 2022, Joshua is ranked as the world's second-best active heavyweight by BoxRec, third by The Ring, and fourth by Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and ESPN, as well as the sixth-best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec.