Following greats such as Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson, Tyson Fury, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather, and so many more, the boxing spectacle ever continues to award us with tremendous competitors, and athletes. One of the latest products of this fiercely entertaining sport is Anthony Joshua.
Anthony oluwafemi olaseni Joshua often called `A.J’ is a Britain born, professional heavyweight boxer. He was born on the 15th day of October 1989, at Watford England. The twenty-nine year old athlete has both his parents of Nigerian origins, but resides at the British capital.
The boxer spent some years in Africa, in Nigeria in row to completing his secondary education as a boarding school student, but later returned to the U.K after his parents’ divorce, he was just twelve. Back in the U.K he continued his education, where he shone at various sporting activities, majorly football and athletics where he broke the school’s year nine 100 meters record with a time, 11.6 seconds.
His 9th professional bout, saw him take on a former WBC international heavyweight champion, Denis Bakhtov , for the WBC heavyweight title which was at that time, vacant. This presented him with the chance of his first major match in professional boxing, which he won in the second round by knockout, stretching his win streak to 9-0, and ultimately gaining him the prestigious title. Successive matches saw him take on the likes of Micheal Sprott, Jason Gerven, and Raphael Zumbano, which he was all victorious in. In May 2015, he faced Kevin Johnson, who prior to the match has had only one defeat, he defeated Kevin in the second round, in what would be the first stoppage in Kevin’s career, who later announced his retirement the next day, before making a comeback in 2017.
Just like many athletes the former world champion, has suffered injuries, but despite this has not relented in working hard consistently to be where he is today, he was also believed to have worked as a bricklayer prior to his professional boxing career, he had always had to work hard, and put in that which was above just average.
His rise to fame wasn’t one that just sprung up as many people would want, but that which saw a gradual, but continual and consistent development, and improvement, due to the level of his zeal, and the amount of effort, determination and dedication he had to devote, these key elements have enabled him evolve, and ultimately establish himself as one of the greatest boxers alive.