Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua, OBE, is a British professional boxer. He is a two-time unified heavyweight champion, having held the WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO titles since December 2019. As an amateur, he represented England at the 2011 World Championships in the super-heavyweight division, winning a silver medal. He also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, winning gold. As of April 2020, Joshua is ranked as the world’s second best active heavyweight by The Ring magazine and Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
About Anthony Joshua in brief
Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua, OBE, is a British professional boxer. He is a two-time unified heavyweight champion, having held the WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO titles since December 2019. As an amateur, he represented England at the 2011 World Championships in the super-heavyweight division, winning a silver medal. He also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, winning gold. Joshua is the second British boxer, after James DeGale, to win both a gold medal at the Olympics and a world title by a major professional sanctioning body. As of April 2020, Joshua is ranked as the world’s second best active heavyweight by The Ring magazine and Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and third by BoxRec. His victories include five world heavyweight champions plus 3 non-titleists who were nonetheless ranked in the global heavyweight top ten by Box Rec within a year of him beating them. His knockout-to-win percentage stands at 91%. Joshua turned professional in 2013, and turned down £50,000 to turn professional. His cousin, Ben Ileyemi, is also a professional boxer, and the pair made their professional debuts together in 2013. Joshua won the senior ABA Championships in 2010, in only his 18th bout. He was named Amateur Boxer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Club of Great Britain in October 2011. He had an amateur record of 40–3 as an amateur. Joshua went into the London Olympics as a novice on the international scene.
He received a tough draw in the last 16 of the superheavyweight event in Cuban Erislandy Savonón, ranked No 4 in the world by the AIBA and nephew of the Olympic champion Félix Savón. The home boxer battled through three tough rounds in his opening bout before being given the result: 17-16 16-17 16-16. He went on to win the 2012 Olympic gold medal in super- heavyweight. Joshua secured his place as a newcomer to the elite level of the sport by beating Italian reigning world and Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle in the 2012 final, En En En final, as well as local boxer Magomedrasul Majidov in the semi-final. In 2014, a year after turning professional, he was named Prospect of the year by TheRing magazine. In 2017, his victorious fight against Wladimir Klitschko was named Fight of theyear by The ring and the Boxing Writer’s Association of America. He holds the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles from 2015 to 2016. His father 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. He grew up on the Meriden Estate in Garston, Hertfordshire, and was called ‘Femi’ by his friends and former teachers, due to his middle name, Olu wafemi. He excelled at football and athletics and broke his school’s Year Nine 100 m record with a time of 11. 6 seconds.
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This page is based on the article Anthony Joshua published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
