Two-time unified boxing heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua has revealed that his two weeks’ remand in prison helped him to become world champion.
Joshua, who holds four of the five heavyweight world titles, was remanded in Reading Prison for what he once described as “fighting and other madness” and he expressed that that was the turning point of his life.
In a chat with Apple Music, the Olympic gold medalist said after the prison experience, he decided to learn boxing and that was the beginning of his world title story.
“When I got bailed, that’s when I started learning how to box and lift weights.
“I thought ‘if I’m going to do a long sentence and I’ve got these little idiot kids in the jail, I’m going to back myself.
“So I started pumping weights, me and my cousin. We bought one of these all-in-one weight machines. So we just put it in the living room, I didn’t have a clue.
“Then I signed up to one of these hard man gyms. Because I was on tag, obviously, I’m out on bail conditions so I got the tag on my leg so I have to be home at eight o’clock every day,” Joshua said.
Joshua, whose inspirational turnaround, from local bad boy to national treasure, has inspired a whole generation of British kids to follow in his giant footsteps further said “I was in a strict routine at a time when I was only 17, 18. I think that’s what helped me with my boxing.
“That when I came off of tag, I was already in a position where I was ready to take off with boxing.
“And I just had to kind of whatever work the devil had for me I had to block out and stay focused on a righteous path. And that’s still a battle today, but I know how to manage it.”
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi