Anthony Joshua - King of the Ring. Frank Worrall
worked. Sometimes the pro sessions were bruising but Anthony learned quickly how to defend and shield himself – he had to if he were to avoid still worse punishment. Then, he learned the timing of attack – when he should throw a jab, when a hook and when not to telegraph a move so that he could launch a hammer blow. It was all coming together for the boy from Watford. With Sean’s help, he would soon be ready for his first amateur bout. He was patient but wanted to get into the ring to prove to himself that he could be a decent boxer; that he was a decent boxer.
His first fight came in November 2008, against Nathan Brede at the Boston Arms pub in Tufnell Park, North London. Anthony took the fight to his opponent, and won. Kerry Duffy from Boxing News was one of the lucky few to witness AJ’s debut and enjoyed the bout. In what is now accepted to be the legendary first article about Anthony, Kerry commented, ‘Not to be outdone by the preceding bouts, the seniors produced several thrilling displays, none more so than Finchley’s Anthony Joshua, who on his debut left the ring to a new set of fans after stopping his opponent, Minateur’s Nathan Brede in the first round. The 18-year-old used his considerable 6’6” frame to maximum effect as he twice forced his man to a standing count before the referee came between them.’
And there it was. Even in his first-ever fight Anthony Joshua showed he had the knockout touch. All those fights that would follow his move to the professional arena would see him dispose of opponents within a couple of rounds, and here he was giving the earliest possible indication of his love of getting the fight over with quickly and with the minimum of fuss.
The boy who would become a phenomenon had always had the dynamite fists and determination to beat whoever was put in front of him, whatever the level and wherever the bout. The fight may have been staged in a small, sweaty boozer, but he had delivered in front of a crowd ‘in the backroom of a pub’. Even back then, he was clearly ambitious to get somewhere fast – as his first opponent would no doubt testify after that first-round stoppage. It may have been a far cry from the O2, but it was so important in AJ’s career. That first win gave him the confidence to believe that he could progress, that he could carve out a career for himself and that he might even one day make it to an Olympics, where he would represent his country.
Within two years of his debut, he had proved just what a prospect he was by winning the Haringey Boxing Cup in 2009 and 2010.
Anthony entered his 20s winning all of his 18 fights at amateur level, including the Senior ABA championships in 2010. Typically, he won the crown via a first-round knockout, with the Isle of Man’s Dominic Winrow the victim. He had a chance to turn pro – and was offered £50,000 to do so – but turned it down as he wanted to have a stab at Olympics glory at London 2012. Anthony says on his official website, anthonyjoshua.com, that ‘winning medals was much more important to him than winning money’.
Also in 2010, he became Champion of Great Britain, defeating Amin Isa. The win earned him his position as number one in the Plus 91kg weight category and meant he was promoted to Team GB. In 2011, Anthony retained his ABA title and reached the quarter-finals of the European Championships in Turkey, where he was knocked out by Mihai Nistor. The Romanian remains the only man to have KO’d AJ, but their relative fortunes since that bout would suggest it was something of a freak outcome. Just before Anthony’s monster fight with Klitschko, it was revealed that Nistor struggles to make £1,000 a month and relies on funding from his nation’s army to continue his career.
But the Romanian showed his humility by revealing that he did not rate himself as a boxer, and would always remember the night he beat a future world champion. He told the BBC, ‘It was a special day, my trainer told me not to worry, Joshua is big but he’ll go down quickly if you punch him correctly. I didn’t know who he was or what he was going to become, he was a good boxer, he was moving all the time and he had a strong punch. I beat him in 2011 and in 2012 he was an Olympic champion. I am not too talented. But I love combat and I like to work … hard work, hard work, hard work.’
Anthony was gutted by the defeat. He believed he could have continued but instead of sulking he put all his efforts into preparing for the World Championships, which could provide him with a ticket for London 2012. He did well at the Worlds, defeating the Olympic and two-time world champion Roberto Cammarelle in the quarter-finals.
Anthony went on to win silver at the tournament in Azerbaijan, and his success secured him qualification for Team GB’s boxing squad in London 2012. He had lost in the final in Baku to the host nation’s Magomedrasul Majidov by one point, 22–21. It was a painful loss, coming as it did on the back of the defeat by Nistor, but that double anguish would serve as inspiration: he had no wish to go through the same emotions again.
He admitted that the defeat had left him in tears, telling the Guardian, ‘Majidov was an unbelievable fighter. But I had only been boxing for two and a half years then because my first amateur fight was in November 2008. So he was much more experienced. Majidov wasn’t big or tough-looking. I thought I would have him easy. But in the first round I was like a novice, missing shots, spinning off. I still thought it was going to be easy. But he came steaming out in the second and caught me with a beautiful shot. Boom. I was OK but I thought: “You want to take it there? Suits me.” I lost my composure and went toe-to-toe with him. That cost me the fight. He won 21–20. I shed a tear afterwards.’
We have already touched on AJ’s unfortunate temporary return to the wrong side of the tracks during his early boxing career. It is enough to say that he realised the error of his ways and was grateful when he was given another chance with Team GB. He had been suspended from the team after he was arrested for possession of cannabis with intent to supply, although the intent to supply charge was dropped. But he got a reprieve and made a vow to his mum that it was the end of the downward spiral, and that from now on he would stay permanently on the straight and narrow. From late 2011 onwards, there would be no turning back – and no more run-ins with the law.
The turnaround in Anthony’s fortunes was apparent by the end of 2011. A year that had started with him fearing a jail term and missing out on the Olympics ended in triumph as he was named ‘Amateur Boxer of the Year’ by the Boxing Writers’ Club of Great Britain. He would now go on to star for Team GB at the Olympics, and would eventually end his amateur career with a record that read 40 wins and 3 defeats. One of those losses he would put right when he became a professional and stopped Dillian Whyte, who had beaten him in an amateur bout back in 2009. Whyte remains the only Briton to have beaten Anthony at any level, but he found himself outclassed when they put on the gloves at the O2 in December 2015. More on that revenge match in a later chapter.
Anthony was now heading for the Olympics in London. Could he win gold on home territory? Or would the pressure of being a local boy weigh heavy? We were about to find out, at the ExCeL Arena …
As the days counted down towards the London Olympics Anthony felt a knot of excitement and anticipation in his stomach. He had certainly come a long way in those four years since putting on the gloves for the first time, and now he could see a truly tangible reward looming if all went to plan. He remained confident that he would end up among the medals but, being AJ, that was only the long-range aim: he wanted, and was working towards, the gold. Never a boy to settle for second best when he set his mind to something, he trained like a demon and maintained the belief that he would emerge triumphant in the battle to become super-heavyweight champion. It was not an ego trip as he saw it, more a rightful end product after all the work he had put into it. All the early-morning runs, the pain in the gym, the hours and hours of sparring – why would he have gone through all of that just to be happy to have participated? No, as always, Anthony was only interested in the top prize. That was his mindset as London 2012 loomed; super-confident, but not arrogant, determined, but not obsessed, and giving 100 per cent in training, but not to the extent that he