Early Life: Anthony Joshua was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England in October 1989.

Joshua won a gold medal representing Britain at the 2012 Olympics. He won a silver medal representing England at the 2011 World Championships. He spend some of his early years attending a boarding school in Nigeria. His parents divorced when he was 12, at which point he returned to England. He excelled at football and track.

Boxing Career: Anthony began boxing at 18 in 2007. In 2010 he won the senior ABA Championship. He then declined more than $60,000 to turn professional, later explaining:

“Turning down that £50,000 was easy. I didn’t take up the sport for money, I want to win medals.”

He became British amateur champion then European amateur champion. In 2011 he was named amateur boxer of the year with an amateur record of 40-3.

He went to the 2012 London Olympics as the game’s home boxer. Despite getting a very tough draw, he went on to win gold in the Super-heavyweight division.

Joshua made his professional boxing debut in October 2013 defeating Emanuele Leo. In December 2013 he was appointed to Member of the Order of the British Empire.

Professional Success: In October 2014 he defeated Denis Bakhtov to win the vacant WBC International heavyweight title. Joshua won the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title and retained the WBC International heavyweight title when he beat Gary Cornish in September 2015. He retained his two titles and won the vacant British heavyweight title in December 2015 over Dillian Whyte. Joshua won the IBF heavyweight title by defeating Charles Martin in April 2016.

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 are included. The loss puts 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.

Earnings: 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 failed several drug tests. Between June 2018 and June 2019, Anthony earned a staggering $54 million, the majority of which came from his fight against Ruiz. That was enough to make him one of the highest-paid athletes in the world