Encomium
Nigerian born Anthony Joshua on Saturday, April 9, 2016 knocked out American Charles Martin in the second round in front of a sellout crowd at London’s 02 Arena to win a world heavyweight title in just his 16th professional fight.
encomium.ng highlights the burgeoning career of the new world champ whose impressive professional boxing record stands at 16 fights, 16 wins (16 knockouts), 0 losses.
1. Anthony Joshua, born 15 October 1989 is a British/Nigerian professional boxer. He is the current IBF heavyweight champion, and also holds the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles.
2. With his defeat of Charles Martin, he became the fifth-fastest boxer to win the heavyweight world title.
3. As an amateur he won a gold medal in the super heavyweight division at the 2012 Olympics, and silver at the 2011 World Championships. As of March 2016, Joshua is ranked the world’s eighth best heavyweight boxer by The Ring magazine, and currently boasts a 100% knockout ratio.
4. 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 well as being the first British heavyweight to do so.
5. 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.
6. Joshua was born in Watford to a Nigerian mother and a father of Nigerian and Irish descent. His cousin is fellow unbeaten professional boxer Ben lleyemi. The pair made their professional debuts together in 2013.
7. Joshua grew up for much of his early years in Nigeria and returned to the UK halfway through Year Seven to join Kings Langley Secondary School.
8. 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’.
9. He excelled at football and athletics and broke the Year Nine 100m record with a time of 11.6 seconds.
10. A late starter in boxing, Joshua only began boxing in 2007, aged 18, when his cousin suggested he take it up.
11. His Mother, Yeta Odusanya has not been at one of Joshua’s bouts since his defeat in the 2011 World Amateur Championships in Azerbaijan.
12. And it is probably for the best considering he has not lost since. Josh said, “I wouldn’t let her come either. It’s no place for a mum, well, my mum anyway. It’s tough.“She will wait for a text and then catch up on it later. She will spend the time praying for me to come back healthy.”
13. In 2009, Joshua 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.
14. 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. He was 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.
15. The fighter has put his bad past of street fighting and drug possession behind him.
16. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to boxing.
17. He was a bricklayer before taking up boxing full-time.
18. His club, Finchley ABC in Barnet, North London, is also home to professional heavyweight Dereck Chisora.
19. 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 Amateur Boxing Championships after defeating Amin Isa. In June 2011 at the 2011 European Amateur Boxing Championships he beat Eric Berechlin and Cathal McMonagle but was stopped by aggressive 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.
20. Joshua has expressed an interest in chess as well as reading as a way to reinforce his boxing and tactical abilities.
