What is Anthony Joshua's Net Worth and Career Earnings?
Anthony Joshua is a British professional boxer with a net worth of $80 million. Anthony is one of the highest-paid athletes in the world. At his peak, he earned $50-60 million per year or more. He is a heavyweight who once held the unified world heavyweight championship.
Early Life
Joshua was born on October 15, 1989, in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. His mother, Yeta, is Nigerian, while his father, Robert, is Nigerian and Irish. During his early years, Joshua lived in Nigeria at a boarding school, the Mayflower School in Ikenne.
When his parents divorced when he was 12, he returned to the United Kingdom and began attending Kings Langley Secondary School. He played soccer and was generally very athletic, breaking the school's 100-meter race record. However, he did not start boxing until age 18, a relatively late start in the sport, and before beginning to box full-time, he worked as a bricklayer.
Boxing Career
After starting to box in 2007, Joshua quickly improved. He joined the Finchley ABC club in North London, also home to the professional heavyweight boxer Derek Chisora. By 2009, Joshua was already winning competitions, including the Haringey Box Cup. In 2010, he won the senior ABA Championships and turned down the opportunity to become professional, preferring to stay amateur until he secured more wins.
By not going pro, he turned down a $60,000 payday. He later explained his decision:
"Turning down that £50,000 was easy. I didn't take up the sport for money, I want to win medals."
He earned a spot on the Great Britain Boxing team and became the GB amateur champion in 2010. In 2011, he almost won the European Championships but was defeated by Romanian Mihai Nistor. He was still named the Amateur Boxer of the Year in 2011 after having maintained a record of 40-3.
Joshua's early success earned him a spot in the 2012 London Olympics. Joshua secured the Olympic gold medal after several heavily contested and criticized matches. However, several critics in the sport say that the home advantage of having the Olympics in England played a role in this decision. The following year, in 2013, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to boxing.
Professional Success
By July of 2013, it was confirmed that Joshua had turned professional under the Matchroom Sport promotional banner. He made his professional debut at the O2 Arena in London in October of 2013, beating Italian Emanuele Leo by TKO in the first round. The first full year of his professional career was very successful, and in October of 2014, again at the O2 Arena, Joshua became the WBC International Heavyweight Champion at 24.
The following year, in September of 2015, Joshua became the Commonwealth Heavyweight Champion after defeating the undefeated Scottish boxer Gary Cornish. Joshua was able to stop Cornish only 90 seconds into the first round. Soon after, in December, he beat another undefeated champion, Dillian Whyte. The match finished in a KO in the seventh round, and it was reported that Joshua had won three million pounds in this fight alone.
In February of 2016, Joshua won his first world title by defeating IBF Heavyweight Champion Charles Martin at the O2 Arena. In June, he then defeated Dominic Breazeale in seven rounds. In November, he successfully defended his IBF title against Eric Molina.
Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
The WBA then agreed that there would be a unification bout between Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko for the vacant WBA Super Title. Sales for the fight broke a box office record. In front of a crowd of over 90,000, Joshua beat Klitschko in a very dramatic TKO. Though there was much talk of a rematch between the two, Klitschko ultimately announced he was retiring from boxing the following year. Joshua was able to retain his world titles through 2017 after fighting Carlos Takam, though Takam maintains that the fight was stopped too early.
In 2018, Joshua defeated fighter Joseph Parker in Cardiff in twelve rounds, the longest match Joshua had ever been forced to fight in his entire 20-0 career. He claimed Parker's WBO Heavyweight title. He later fought and defeated Alexander Povetkin in seven rounds to maintain his world titles. He continued to dominate throughout much of 2019 and 2020.
Notable Paydays
In April 2017, he defeated Wladimir Klitschko to win the vacant WBA (Super) and IBO heavyweight titles and bring his record to 19 – 0 with 19 knockouts. He earned $17 million from the fight.
He then earned $12.5 million fighting Carlos Takam.
On June 1st, 2019, Anthony was defeated by a relative unknown named Andy Ruiz, Jr. In Ruiz's previous match, he made $200,000. For defeating Joshua, Ruiz made $7 million. Anthony made $25 million from the fight when all income sources were included. The loss put a predicted future $60 million payday to fight Deontay Wilder on very shaky ground.
In December 2019, Anthony was guaranteed $60 million to right Ruiz again in Saudi Arabia. Andy was guaranteed $9 million. Anthony won the fight by unanimous decision.
Between June 2017 and June 2018, Anthony Joshua earned $42 million from purses and endorsements. Much of that was the $20 million he earned fighting Alexander Povetkin. He was supposed to earn $25 million for his next fight against Jarrell Miller, which was canceled after Miller had failed several drug tests.
Between June 2018 and June 2019, Anthony earned a staggering $54 million, most of which came from his fight against Ruiz. That was enough to make him one of the highest-paid athletes in the world.
Personal Life
Joshua has had a few run-ins with law enforcement. In 2009, he was put on remand in Reading Prison for getting into fights and had to wear an electronic ankle tag upon release. In March of 2011, he was pulled over for speeding in North London and was charged with possession of cannabis after eight ounces of the drug were found hidden in a sports bag in his car. He was thus suspended from the GB Boxing squad and was sentenced to 12 months of community order and 100 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to the offense.
Joshua has stated that he enjoys tactical games like chess as a way to improve his boxing abilities. He is not a big fan of soccer but does support Real Madrid. He has cited Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, and Evander Holyfield as some of his boxing idols.
Joshua has been romantically linked to several women over the years. It was reported that he and model Cara Delevigne were seeing each other in 2014. In 2015, Joshua had a son named Joseph with dance teacher Nicole Osbourne. He was also pictured with model Bella Hadid in 2016, starting rumors that the two were dating, but relationships ultimately failed to materialize.
