This book is dedicated to Toby Buchan,
a brilliant editor and a true gent.
CONTENTS
1 TITLE PAGE
2 DEDICATION
3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
4 CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING
5 CHAPTER 2: SAVED BY THE BELL
6 CHAPTER 3: LONDON CALLING
7 CHAPTER 4: THE GOLDEN BOY
8 CHAPTER 5: THE JOSHUA TREE (OF LIFE)
9 CHAPTER 6: ANT AND DECKED
10 CHAPTER 7: THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
11 CHAPTER 8: THE GRUDGE MATCH
12 CHAPTER 9: CHAMPION OF THE WORLD
13 CHAPTER 10: THE TEAM BEHIND THE MAN
14 CHAPTER 11: THE DREAM CATCHER
15 CHAPTER 12: LAST MAN STANDING
16 CHAPTER 13: THE BIG COUNT DOWN
17 CHAPTER 14: I AM LEGEND
18 CHAPTER 15: JOY DIVISION
19 PLATES
20 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
21 COPYRIGHT
Many thanks: all at John Blake Publishing, Jon Moorhead, Ross ‘Biscuit’ Harris, Dave Kidd, Pat Sheehan, Danny Bottono, Dominic Turnbull, Dave Morgan, John Maskey, Wes Smith, Tony Grassby, Jo Porter, Graham Oates, Andy Clayton, Steven Gordon, Ian Rondeau, Ben Felsenburg, Alex Butler, Lee Clayton, Roy Stone, Colin Forshaw, Tom Henderson Smith, Lee Hassall.
Heartfelt thanks: Angela, Frankie, Jude and Natalie, Frank and Barbara, Bob and Stephen.
‘You cannot not love this man. He’s turned his life around, won Olympic gold, he lives with his mum in north London … he’s already got plenty of money, he just wants to stay there and dedicate his life to the sport.’
– ANTHONY JOSHUA’S PROMOTER, EDDIE HEARN
29 April 2017
There’s a sequence in the movie Rocky IV where Apollo Creed enters the arena wearing an Uncle Sam outfit, replete with outrageous top hat, dancing and shadow boxing to the James Brown classic, ‘Living In America’. Creed, now 42, has been trained by Rocky for an exhibition bout against the Russian Ivan Drago and is determined to give the fans something to remember. He smiles and laughs and salutes his fans. Only Drago hasn’t come for an exhibition match; he has come trained for destruction and for a literal fight to the death with Creed.
It is one of the most stunning entrances to a fight ever and the following sequence, in which Drago does not even blink when Creed winks to him as if to say, ‘We’re here to play, this isn’t a real fight,’ makes the film-goer hold his or her breath in anticipation of a potential tragedy. Two men, one in the ring for fun, the other for deadly business. It soon becomes clear that Drago is emotionless and that Creed has made a terrible miscalculation. He should have taken the fight seriously, but allowed himself to get carried by the notion that he is here for nothing more than a visual and musical display to please the crowd, and that Drago is in on the secret. There then follows the crushing realisation when Drago thumps him into oblivion, and utters the prophetic, sinister phrase, ‘If he dies, he dies.’
Fast forward to Saturday, 29 April 2017. London heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, holder of the IBF belt and Olympic champion, enters the capital’s Wembley Stadium in front of 90,000-plus adoring fans. He saunters down towards the ring in a flashy satin white robe with music from rapper Stormzy as his backing track. But instead of jumping straight in the ring he detours onto a platform that raises him up into the warm night air, with Jack White’s ‘Seven Nation Army’ now his accompaniment. Then comes the denouement, as flames explode and Anthony salutes the crowd, with his initials AJ on either side in full pyrotechnic glory. Meanwhile, the modernday ‘Beast from the East’ stands proudly in the ring, awaiting his arrival, face stern and emotionless, ready to do battle like a real-life Drago.
The similarities with the scene from Rocky IV made many of Fleet Street’s finest a tad nervous for Anthony’s health and safety. Had he blown it before he even unleashed an initial punch? Sure, the crowd loved the spectacle and Anthony, commonly known as ‘AJ’, revelled in the adulation. But wouldn’t it have hit him emotionally, blurring his focus? And wouldn’t it have wound up the emotionless, totally focused and determined Ukrainian in the opposite corner? Wladimir Klitschko was no journeyman. He was by far the toughest, most decorated opponent AJ had faced. Not for nothing was he known as ‘Dr Steelhammer’, and not for nothing did he hold the record of having the second longest reign in boxing history.
Klitschko, also an Olympic champion, had trained harder than any time in his career for this fight, determined as he was to regain his world crown and, more importantly for such a noble man, his pride after his shock loss to Britain’s Tyson Fury. In the eyes of many pundits, and his corner, he was in the best shape of his career and his threat to AJ was a very real one. Wladimir was, and is, a boxer who, unlike the vast majority, had interests outside the fight game and who liked to view his fights tactically and technically, not just in terms of sheer brawn. So it was little wonder that he simply smiled and shook his head knowingly as AJ walked the final yards to the ring, after his showbiz arrival. Klitschko had seen it all in his years at the top; he might be 41 but he looked ten years younger as he and AJ touched gloves.
This was the final leg of a journey for Anthony Joshua – a journey that had begun in a ‘spit and sawdust’ gym in Finchley, North London, in 2008 and would end, hopefully in triumph, against one of the greatest world champions of any era in England’s national stadium. Could AJ deliver, or had he blown it with that flashy, Apollo Creed-style entrance? Had he the guts, talent and determination to switch on to the fight, or had the pyrotechnics, glamour and sheer adulation dulled the aggression within? Even if he has lost focus temporarily, it could be fatal against a predator like Klitschko. Or had the over-the-top show actually filled him with more pride and more determination to show his gratitude to those loyal fans who had splashed out big money to see him in action on the biggest night of his life?
We were about to find out. But one thing was for sure … Anthony Joshua had turned his life around and found redemption against the odds. He had swapped a life of petty criminality and potential jail terms to become a figure much loved by the British public for his immensely likeable personality, and by boxing fans as Britain’s greatest ever fighter. He had the likeability of Frank Bruno out of the ring and the swaggering, no-fear, witty potential of a British Muhammad Ali inside it. But just how had he got there – how had he come to sell 90,000 tickets for a boxing bout in London to come up against a great champion? How had he done all this from humble beginnings and a total lack of direction that almost led to him ending up in prison? From Watford to Wembley via Nigeria, Finchley and Reading jail, this is one of the greatest rags-to-riches, and to ultimate redemption,