Heavyweight to Littleweight: How Anthony Joshua Lost His World Championships -By Mua’z Zubair

Anthony Oluwafemi Olasemi Joshua, popularly known as AJ, is a British professional boxer. He was born on the 15th of October,1989 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. His mother is a Nigerian while his father is of Nigerian and Irish lineage.

Joshua’s Nigerian background can be specifically traced back to the Yoruba people, amongst whom he is of aristocratic status. Joshua spent some of his early years in Nigeria as a boarding school student at Mayflower School in Ikenne in the present Ogun State.

His Way to Boxing

At age 18, in 2007, Joshua began his career as a professional boxer when he joined ABC in Barnet, North London. He won the 2009 and 2010 Haringey Box Cup won and the senior ABA Championships in 2010, in only his 18th bout, and later turned down £50,000 to turn professional.

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

In 2010, his domestic success won him a place on the GB Boxing team and later the same year he became British amateur champion at the GB Championships after defeating Amin Isa. At the 2011 European Championships in June, he beat the German Eric Brechlin 23:16 and the Irishman Cathal McMonagle 22:10 but was stopped by the Romanian southpaw Mihai Nistor after receiving several standing counts.

In October 2011 he was named Amateur Boxer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Club of Great Britain. Joshua had an amateur record of 40–3.

World Championships

In Baku, Azerbaijan, during the 2011 World Championships, AJ marked his sudden arrival on the world scene when he beat Italian reigning world and Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle, and went on to stop Erik Pfeifer of Germany in the semis before losing by a single point to the local boxer, Magomedrasul Majidov winning a silver medal. En route to the final, Joshua secured his place at the 2012 Olympic Games in the super-heavyweight division as a relative newcomer to the elite level of the sport.

Joshua went into the 2012 London Olympics as a novice on the international scene, despite being a world silver medalist. He received a tough draw in the last 16 of the super-heavyweight event in Cuban Erislandy Savón, ranked No. 4 in the world by AIBA and nephew of the three-time Olympic champion Félix Savón.

He battled through three tough rounds in his opening contest before being given the result 17:16. This decision caused some controversy with most observers believing Savon had clearly won the bout whilst a few others taking the view that he had won on merit. In his next bout, he fought the 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medalist Zhang Zhilei, dropping his taller opponent in the middle round; Joshua won by 15:11 guaranteeing at least a bronze medal. In the semi-final, Joshua met Kazakh boxer Ivan Dychko, and despite Joshua’s height disadvantage, he won by 13:11 to gain a place in the Olympic final. Joshua met 32-year-old reigning Olympic champion and former two-time world champion, Roberto Cammarelle of Italy in the closing bout.

After conceding the first two rounds (6:5 and 13:10) to Cammarelle, an adversary he had already beaten the previous year, Joshua grew into the fight and fought back to level the scores after the third round (18:18). Joshua was announced the winner via count-back and the new Olympic champion. The final decision was criticised by some boxing experts, being defined as a “home decision”.

Professional Career

On 11 July 2013, it was confirmed that Joshua had turned professional under the Matchroom Sport promotional banner. Joshua made his professional debut on 5 October 2013 at the O2 Arena in London in the main event of a card featuring Scott Quigg’s successful WBA super-bantamweight title defence against Yoandris Salinas, beating Italian Emanuele Leo by a technical knockout (TKO) in the first round.

Joshua’s second fight was won against English heavyweight Paul Butlin at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield on 26 October 2013. While his third fight was with Hrvoje Kišiček on 14 November 2013. Joshua got a TKO victory in the second round, achieving his third knockout (KO) victory in a row.

In his tenth bout, on 22 November 2014, Joshua defeated Michael Sprott within the first round to extend his record to ten wins, all by stoppage. With the fight only lasting 1 minute and 26 seconds, it gave Joshua a total ring time in the professional ranks of just 36 minutes and 36 seconds.

He was supposed to face American boxer Kevin Johnson on 31 January 2015 at The O2 Arena in London, but the bout was cancelled after Joshua sustained a back injury.[34] On 4 April 2015, Joshua beat Jason Gavern with a third-round KO in his return to the ring in Newcastle. On 9 May 2015, in his twelfth bout, Joshua defeated Raphael Zumbano Love in a second-round KO in Birmingham.

On 30 May 2015, Joshua defeated former world title challenger Kevin Johnson (29–6–1, 14 KOs), inflicting the first stoppage in Johnson’s career. After Johnson was saved by the bell in the first round the fight was stopped by the referee shortly after the beginning of the second round. Before the fight, Johnson had taken the likes of Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora the twelve-round distance.

A day after the fight, Johnson announced his retirement, although he made a comeback in March 2017.

How He Lost His Heavyweight Championships

On the 1st of June 2019, Anthony Joshua Lost his first professional heavyweight boxer after 24 competitive matches in a clash against Andy Ruiz Jr at the Madison Square Garden, New York City, US. The defeat made him lose his belts: WBA(super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles, to Ruiz.

On7th December 2019, Anthony Joshua set to challenge his rival Andy Ruiz Jr again for a rematch at Diriyah Arena, in Saudi Arabia. Fortunately for AJ, the night was at his side. He reclaimed back his lost titles and remained the World Champion again.

However, On the 25th September 2021, the reign of Anthony Joshua as IBF, WBA and WBO Champions was ended in a sensational fight with Usyk.

Joshua was left with a badly damaged right eye after his heavyweight defeat to Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night and was checked over by medics following the 12-round contest.

Usyk continued to land heavy southpaw shots throughout the bout and Joshua’s black eye started to show prominently after the 10th round.

The British heavyweight failed to make use of his 18lb weight advantage over the cruiserweight king who controlled the contest before finishing the final round strongly with a barrage of shots.

Joshua left the ring soon after the unanimous 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113 verdict was announced at Tottenham Stadium.

Fight promoter Eddie Hearn said afterwards: “I don’t know if AJ suffered eye socket damage but he’s gone to the hospital now.”

The defeat is the latest obstacle to AJ finally facing WBC champion Tyson Fury in a fight the boxing world has long wanted to see.

That showdown had already been derailed because Fury now has to fight American Deontay Wilder for a third time on October 9.