Anthony Joshua said he cherishes his time living at home with his mother, even as a towering figure in boxing.
The two-time heavyweight champion steps back into the ring on Friday night to face Francis Ngannou, the former UFC heavyweight champion who caused a stir with his professional boxing debut against Tyson Fury last October.
Joshua’s relentless schedule has seen him compete four times in less than a year, from working with head coach Derrick James in Texas to dominating Otto Wallin in Saudi Arabia for his final bout of 2023.
Joshua said:
‘I still live with my mum. I’m 34!
‘I realised I train away from home a lot, so if I’m away from home maybe 10 months of the year and when I get back I’ve got to do commercial work,
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I realised that if I was to move out I would never actually see my mum, I would never actually see my family.
‘Obviously throughout the year I am away in different parts of the world, I’ve got places I can stay but my actual base, my home is with mum so I still can wake up and see her and spend time with her when I can.’
Maintaining a famously private lifestyle,
Joshua returned to his roots in 2017, settling into his mother’s modest two-bedroom ex-council flat in Golders Green, a property he acquired for £175,000. His boxing journey began at the nearby Finchley ABC gym.
‘In our culture you grow up with your family,’ Joshua said last year.
‘We grow up in our own family homes for a long time. We support our parents.
Why am I going to move out and leave my mum by herself for some girl?’
Turki Alalshikh, the man responsible for delivering some of the biggest fights in boxing in Saudi, has promised to deliver another huge showdown later in the year.
With Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk meeting on 18 May to crown the division’s fist undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis, Alalshikh insists the winner of that bout will later meet the winner of Joshua vs Ngannou.
Fury vs Joshua has come close to being made but has fallen through on several occasions, denying sports fans what would surely be the biggest fight in the history of British boxing.
Joshua remains hopeful it can be delivered ‘sooner rather than later’.
‘I would say sooner than later, it is in in the pipeline, it’s been bubbling for a long time, it has to happen. It is definitely going to happen sooner than later,’ Joshua said.
He added: There’s a map. These are the checkpoints and if I can complete these checkpoints Fury is part of my journey for sure. And I’m sure I’m part of his as well.
