To date, Anthony Joshua has fought and won 22 professional bouts. He holds four of the world heavyweight titles and next year could claim the fifth, a feat that has never been done before. But first, something else that’s never been done before – part of our 30th-anniversary dissection of masculinity – a man photographed with his son for the cover of this magazine. From why he doesn’t want his child to ever enter the ring to what it takes to raise a family right, we find out how boxing taught him not just to fight, but how to be a father.
It takes a family to raise a man,’ reflects Anthony Joshua as we wait for his mother to collect his son.
The heavyweight champion of the world has a small problem. We are in the sprawling garden of a large house in Hadley Wood, a leafy suburb of North London, gathered to photograph Joshua and his young son, Joseph Joshua – known as “JJ”. And while young JJ is happy enough to muck about with his toys, or potter about in the garden, or perch on the lavishly broad shoulders of his 6’6” dad, he is not nearly so happy when it is time for his GQ photo call.
“Come here, JJ,” commands Joshua – “AJ” to the court that surrounds him – with a serious frown. “Come here! Come here! Come here!”
“I’m leaving,” pipes JJ.
And even the heavyweight champion of the world can’t argue with a lad who is just coming up to his third birthday.
Anthony wears hoodie, £60. Shorts, £30. Both by Under Armour. underarmour.co.uk. Vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Necklace, Anthony’s own. Joseph wears hoodie (part of a set), £35. Shorts, £26. Both by Under Armour. underarmour.co.uk. T-shirt by Boss, £35. At Selfridges. selfridges.com. Boots by Step2wo, £90. At Harvey Nichols. harveynichols.comGavin Bond
Joshua’s mother, Yeta, arrives to collect her grandson and JJ – Joshua’s child with dance teacher Nicole Osbourne – is whisked off by Granny, the first GQ cover star to ever demand his afternoon nap before he goes to work.
It is a few days after Joshua fought Russian Alexander Povetkin in front of 90,000 people at Wembley Stadium, and although he radiates fitness and power like nobody I have ever met in my life, he is a weary man when he sprawls his massive frame across a sofa.
“It’s not just the fight. It’s also the training camp,” he says. “You run on adrenaline and eventually your body shuts down. I had really bad flu before the fight – I’ve still got it now – and more than anything my victory was a relief that I got it done. My nose hurts but it’s not broken. And I’m not pissing blood.”
Povetkin had been what the boxing world calls “game”. Fighting to redeem himself after years when his career had been tainted by drug bans, the Russian proved a teak-hard challenger, landing a heavy blow flush on Joshua’s nose in the first round and fighting for his life until AJ battered him to the canvas in the seventh.
Povetkin felt like a typical Anthony Joshua fight – the faintest hint of vulnerability around Joshua, the edge-of-your-seat drama and then finally the denouement as AJ emphatically cleaned his opponent’s clock. An Anthony Joshua fight is a story in which you are never certain what is going to happen next, but – so far – has always had a happy ending, with Joshua grinning as his corner adorn him in his championship belts and a sold-out British stadium sings his name to the tune of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”.
Joshua is a knockout artist – he has fought 22 professional bouts without defeat and won 21 of them by battering the other man to the edge of consciousness or beyond. Fight fans love that stuff. But Joshua is loved way beyond the world of boxing. Wembley Stadium is already booked for his 23rd fight on 13 April 2019, the opponent yet to be confirmed. But whoever he is fighting, AJ can sell out Wembley Stadium like a rock star.
Anthony wears vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Jeans by Louis Vuitton, £625. louisvuitton.com. Joseph wears T-shirt by Gucci, £100. At Harrods. harrods.com. Jeans by Paul Smith, £71. paulsmith.com. Shoes by Converse, £29. At Schuh. schuh.co.ukGavin Bond.
Joshua has become our most iconic sportsman since David Beckham because of the way he carries himself inside and outside the ring. He is a warrior and a gentleman. In the toxic, trash-talking world of boxing, now amplified a million times on social media, Joshua insists on treating his opponents with respect before and after the fight.
“When you disrespect another fighter, you disrespect the sport,” he says. “You shouldn’t do that to other athletes. He’s shit. He’s this. He’s that. He’s got no credibility. It reflects badly on boxing. Calling people bums… There’s a way to do it. He’s a good fighter – but I’m better!”
And even though future opponents over the next few years are likely to be men who all have PhDs in trash talk – Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury, Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder, Dillian “The Body Snatcher” Whyte – Joshua will never stoop to the trash-talking sewer just to sell a few more tickets on pay-per-view. “It’s always good to be yourself,” he says. “Don’t put on an act. Some of these fighters, they put on an act.”
Joshua believes in the nobility of boxing, the healing power of boxing, the essential decency of the only sport that can’t be described as a game. But when I ask him if he would want JJ to box, he doesn’t even have to think about it.
Anthony wears vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Jeans by Louis Vuitton, £625. louisvuitton.com. Joseph wears T-shirt by Gucci, £100. At Harrods. harrods.comGavin Bond
“No,” he says. “It’s too hard. It’s a dangerous sport. I want my son to be the best man that he can be, but I don’t want him to be compared to me. You’re not going to be a boxing star without going through heaps of pain. Life is not a highlight reel. A career is not a highlight reel. People see the glamour, the winning. Nobody’s interested in the knocks and bruises, the bad eye, the struggle. My son has the bloodline for it, there’s no doubt about that…”
But fighting for money at this elite level takes something more, he believes. And it is the reason that Joshua enjoys nothing more than watching documentaries about the animal kingdom, studying nature’s grandmasters of the calculated 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁. Joshua is a genuinely warm, friendly man but in the ring he has a chip of ice, a mean streak, a vicious instinct that has concluded almost every one of his fights. “When he has them rocking,” said IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington of Joshua, “he’s savage.”
“I get that from my old man,” Joshua chuckles. “We all have that 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁er instinct, but we dampen it down in life. That’s what we train for – that 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁er instinct. It’s what I do for a living. I had that instinct before I ever boxed, but now I know how to handle it, control it and when to use it. And that’s why I think maybe JJ won’t be able to box, because when you come from a less violent background, do you have that instinct? JJ has the bloodline but will he be the strongest in the pack? That’s what people will wonder and I would wonder that too and probably wouldn’t want him to do it.”
Anthony wears vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Jeans by Louis Vuitton, £625. louisvuitton.com. Joseph wears jumper by Gucci, £170. At Harrods. harrods.com. Jeans by Paul Smith, £71. paulsmith.com. Boots by Step2wo, £90. At Harvey Nichols. harveynichols.comGavin Bond
Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua was born in Watford on 15 October 1989, the child of Nigerian parents, Yeta and Robert Joshua, who divorced when Joshua – known as “Femi” in childhood – was 12. He was partly educated at a boarding school in Nigeria but spent most of his childhood on the Meriden Estate in Garston, part of Watford’s sprawl. He grew up surrounded by his extended family – aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins beyond counting and an uncertain number of siblings.
“I have about seven brothers and sisters,” he says, smiling. “So there is a big pool of us. A tightknit family. My dad was supportive in his own way, even if it was on the phone from Nigeria. My dad was quite stubborn. He wasn’t going to rush to come to me. And I get that and I will always respect my dad. Some people think their parents should have done more, but the way I was raised, I will always have respect for my father.”
Yet despite the large, loving extended family, young Femi grew up really good at sports, but really bad at staying out of trouble. By the time Joshua was in his late teens, the trouble threatened to ruin his life. At 18 he spent two weeks on remand in Reading Prison for “fighting and other crazy stuff” – with a possible sentence of ten years.
“My life could have been completely different,” he says ruefully. “I’m 28 and it’s ten years since my first amateur fight. But I could just be getting out of jail right now.”
Anthony wears hoodie, £60. Shorts, £60. Trainers, £115. Socks, £16. All by Under Armour. underarmour.co.uk. Vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Necklace, Anthony’s own. Joseph wears hoodie (part of a set), £35. Shorts, £26. Both by Under Armour. underarmour.co.uk. T-shirt by Boss, £35. At Selfridges. selfridges.comGavin Bond
Instead he was spared with wearing an electronic tag for a year. Then two years later he was pulled over for speeding and the police discovered herbal cannabis in his sports bag. This time he received a community order and did 100 hours’ unpaid work. And a year later he won the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics.
The young Anthony Joshua, a good, big-hearted kid with an absolute genius for getting into scrapes, was given a shot at redemption and he clasped it in both those massive hands. Joshua has three tattoos – on his right arm, the word “wisdom” and a map of Africa with Nigeria outlined, and a British lion on the back of his neck.
“I am a patriot,” he says. “I’m proud of this country. I don’t have to fight in New York or Las Vegas. The belts are here! It’s about time we got the respect we deserve. It has been a blessing to be born here. This country has supported me through thick and thin. This country offers opportunity to everyone. I never tried to get into fights in my life.”
Joseph wears T-shirt by Boss, £35. At Selfridges. selfridges.com. Shorts, £26. Shoes, £45. Both by Under Armour. underarmour.co.ukGavin Bond
And you wonder, who would want to fight this guy?
“We would go out clubbing a lot when we were young. We would go out raving at the Opera House [a club in Tottenham], somewhere like that, and there was always someone… It would sometimes kick off because they wanted to beat the biggest man they saw. Being big can get you into more trouble than it gets you out of.”
Boxing saved him. One of his many cousins, Ben Ileyemi, took him to Finchley & District Amateur Boxing Club when he was 18 and it was love at first sight.
“As soon as I walked into that gym for the first time I knew I wanted to give myself to boxing,” he says. “Boxing is the sport that rewards hard work, the sport that if you apply yourself, dedicate yourself, train hard, you can become one of the best in the world. I stopped smoking, I stopped late nights, I cut out everything that didn’t help boxing. Does taking out lots of women help boxing? No? Then cut it out. Does going on to this party help boxing? No? Then cut it out. And when I cut out all the negatives, it began to happen.”
Anthony wears jacket by Gucci, £1,590. gucci.com. Vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Jeans by Louis Vuitton, £625. louisvuitton.com. Trainers by Tod’s, £330. tods.com. Socks by Pantherella, £12. pantherella.com. Joseph wears jumper by Gucci, £170. At Harrods. harrods.com. Jeans by Paul Smith, £71. paulsmith.com. Boots by Step2wo, £90. At Harvey Nichols. harveynichols.comGavin BondMost Popular
Boxing was another family for Joshua. The trainers at Finchley ABC – the late John Oliver, Sean Murphy and Gary Foley – all had lessons to teach and in the young AJ they discovered a natural athlete who was willing to learn, listen and pay any price.
“I needed a full-time, full-on work ethic from male figures,” he says. “A mother raising a son alone is hard work. A boy needs a father – and if a father is not around, then he needs father figures. Those trainers at the gym had seen it all.”
Most men are changed by fatherhood but Joshua, who was 25 when JJ was born, says it was boxing that made him a different man.
“Boxing put me in touch with my own mortality. Some people have a kid and think, ‘I need to sort myself out now.’ But boxing did that for me. That’s the feeling I had when I walked into a boxing gym. Boxing gave me belief in myself. What has changed by having my son is that now I think about the future – the pitfalls of life, what I’ve seen, how to be a better man.”
Anthony wears vest by Hanro, £33. hanro.co.uk. Jeans by Louis Vuitton, £625. louisvuitton.com. Trainers by Tod’s, £330. tods.com. Socks by Pantherella, £12. pantherella.com. Joseph wears jumper by Gucci, £170. At Harrods. harrods.com. Jeans by Paul Smith, £71. paulsmith.com. Boots by Step2wo, £90. At Harvey Nichols. harveynichols.comGavin Bond
The story of Anthony Joshua is still being written. His career-defining fights – AJ’s “Thrilla In Manila”, his “Rumble In The Jungle” – are waiting in the wings. He holds the IBO, IBF, WBA and WBO titles – everything there is to hold but the WBC belt possessed by Deontay Wilder. Wilder and Tyson Fury fight in LA in December. Like Joshua, they are undefeated. And, as they say in boxing, someone’s “O” has to go. But that is all for another day. Right now the breaking news is that JJ is ready for his photoshoot after having a good nap while being driven around by his grandmother.
It takes a family to raise a man.
From November 2018 see a month’s worth of content on what it means to be a man, on GQ.co.uk, written by a variety of columnists each day.
