Anthony Joshua is a two-time unified heavyweight champion boxer...

Anthony Joshua is a two-time unified heavyweight champion boxer and Olympic gold medalist with the remarkable record of 23 and 1. A brilliant tactitician in the ring, AJ is known for his skill and boxing IQ, as well as his marketability, personality, and amazing record. His infamous loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June of 2019 was one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, proving a new angle to AJ’s allure: his vulnerability. While the loss had the potential to derail his entire career, Anthony Joshua put his tactical skills to work, and reclaimed the narrative for himself. Anthony Joshua was born in Watford, Hertfordshire in the UK, and grew up in a tough and sometimes dangerous environment in which street fights were common. From this time Joshua learned to be smart, quick, athletic, and–ironically–charming, preferring to diffuse situations rather than make them worse. These skills would become key in his professional career. As an amateur he won multiple tournaments, turning down offers to turn pro because he enjoyed medals over money. In the 2012 London Olympics Joshua won gold for the UK and received an MBE from the British Empire the following year for his services to the sport of boxing. In 2017, Anthony Joshua fought IBO heavyweight title-holder Wladimir Klitschko for the vacant WBA (Super) title in what was probably his first massive matchup. It was a brutal fight between two tacticians in the sport, but in the end, the older Klitschko was outboxed, knocked to the canvas and pushed against the ropes. The referee stopped the fight, and Joshua unified the IBF, IBO, and WBA titles and continued his streak of knockout victories. Whatever Joshua’s future career holds, whether he will continue on undefeated into eventual retirement or there are more losses, more lessons, on his horizon, only time will tell. But until then, we can only guess what kind of legends will one day be told about the fighter known simply as “AJ”.

from Ultimate Fighting Network https://ultimatefightingnetwork.tumblr.com/post/639884042665377792
via Theodore Marlin