Joshua has an eight-year-old son, JJ, but hopes he pursues a career away from the ring to ensure he doesn’t have a target on his back
When the time comes, Anthony Joshua will sit his young son down for the chat.
The same conversation fearful fighting fathers before him had with children raised in the darkest corners of boxing gyms. Joshua, who takes on former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia tonight, has twice reigned as heavyweight ruler and amassed a fortune large enough to support his family for generations to come.
But he will plead with football-mad son JJ, who will turn nine this year, to look beyond that fame and fortune and to recognise the pain and sacrifice a career in the ring has inflicted. And where the likes of Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn failed, Joshua hopes to succeed in stopping his son stepping through the ropes.
“I would never let him box. I am not interested in him boxing,” he said. “You have to be so strong mentally to be a boxer. I’m not saying he won’t be mentally strong but I would not want to put him through that mental pressure. I am sure he could fight, he will definitely have the genes to do it, but the mental side – that goes unspoken about – I would not want him to go through that.
“Imagine ‘Anthony Joshua’s son is boxing’; there would be a target on his back straight away. It will be JJ’s choice but I will advise him he could probably do something completely different and still enjoy life – but he still has to work hard!” Former world champions Eubank and Benn implored their sons not to follow in their footsteps but were ultimately forced to relent.
Neither has reached their dads’ heady heights and Conor Benn’s reputation was tarnished when he failed a drugs test before his scheduled fight with Chris Eubank Jr in 2022. And Joshua doesn’t want to watch his son struggle to live up to the family name”This job is not fun. I enjoy showcasing my s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s but to get to that point is not fun,” he added. “It’s a lot of sacrifice, a lot of passion and dedication. It takes a lot and it takes a lot out of you.
“I’ll have to wait for 15 years to get through to the end of my career and think, ‘F***, I got through all that, now let me go and have fun’. JJ could live a good life but I have to wait until I retire before I can sit back and finally enjoy life.” Joshua knows victory against Ngannou could secure him a shot at the only major prize to have eluded him – the undisputed title.
Tyson Fury, who will be ringside in Riyadh tonight, faces Oleksandr Usyk in May to crown the first-ever four-belt champion in the heavyweight division. Fury almost came unstuck against Ngannou last October when he was dropped in the third round before recovering to win on points. And Joshua is confident he will learn from his countryman’s mistakes.
“Fury must have found some difficulties in there with him but, for me, I think you have to be relentless. I will go after him, you have to have that mentality,” he said. “Before he fought Fury I looked at this whole crossover thing as not serious. If I had taken a crossover fight, people would have asked, ‘What the f*** is Anthony Joshua doing?’ I wouldn’t have been able to walk out of my house, but now people are taking it more seriously because of that fight. It has helped to get me motivated. I can show how great I am and what I can do in the ring.”
