Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Oh my Josh..
WINNINGS OF A WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT
BOXING giant Anthony Joshua could bank up to £1billion as he plans to rule the ring for the next 10 years. The 6ft 6in former bricklayer was catapulted to superstardom by his sensational victory over Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday. And not only did he pocket an eye-watering pay cheque estimated at £15million, he also got himself a fearsome-looking black eye – which impressed his 18-month-old son Joseph. Joshua is now being tipped to become the richest boxer ever, eclipsing even the great Floyd Mayweather, who earned an estimated £540million from the sport. As he celebrated with his family and friends yesterday, the down-to-earth fighter joked collecting his weekly wash at the launderette may take longer with the extra attention. “Yeah, I expect there will be people queuing for me there, but first off, I’ve got to pay my bill,” he laughed. His proud mum Yeta Odusanya was not ringside on Saturday. She was at home, babysitting Joseph. Joshua wasted no time in checking in with them after the fight through the Facetime app. He said: “I was speaking to my son who is 18 months and I could see he was looking at my eye and he went, ‘wow’.”
KNOCKOUT
Yeta was beaming in a glamorous floorlength lace dress as she gave a double thumbs-up sign as she emerged from her home in Golders Green, North London, on her way to meet the champ yesterday. Joshua still lives with his mum in the former council flat and neighbours see him regularly as he pops to local shops Last night, the star insisted: “I’m going back to the same house and the same family. Nothing changes.” Joshua enjoyed a long lie-in after staying up until 5am with friends. He said: “I had a big sleep at the time my body needed it. I’m looking forward to having more lie-ins and taking it easy for a few weeks.” But a hugely anticipated Battle of Britain bout against former champ Tyson Fury is now firmly in his sights. After knocking out Klitschko in front of 90,000 ecstatic fans at Wembley on Saturday, Joshua, 27, made it clear who he wants to meet next. With an estimated global TV audience of 100 million, he grabbed a microphone in the ring and said: “Fury, where you at, baby?” He added: “I love fighting. Tyson Fury, I know he’s been talking, I want to give 90,000 a chance [to see us], I just want to fight.” Fury, out of the ring since his own win over Klitschko 18 months ago, responded on Twitter: “Challenge accepted”. He added: “We will give the world the biggest fight in a 500 years. “I will play with you. You are a boxer’s dream.” A match between the two giants of the ring would break all previous box office records. And Joshua said it was a fight fans wanted to see. He added: “I just like to entertain and if that is a fight that would bring entertainment to the sport I’d love to be involved in another dust-up but this time it will be two Brits coming together.” Last year Fury, 28, gave up the world heavyweight titles he won by beating Klitschko to focus on his mental health problems. But he is now training in Marbella for a comeback. Joshua, from Watford, Herts, is now one of the biggest names in world sport. With just 19 fights under his belt, he stopped Klitschko in the 11th round but only after getting up off the canvas when he was knocked down in the sixth. Yesterday he laughed and insisted: “I slipped!” Having won Olympic gold in 2012, he now owns the IBF, IBO and WBA heavyweight titles. His
Champ is set to make £500m in next decade Fighter says son awestruck by his shiner
manager, Eddie Hearn, said the young fighter wanted to rule the heavyweight boxing world for the next decade. And he is vowing to take on all comers. “We might run out of opponents,” he said. “He is unquestionably world boxing’s biggest star.” He added: “I said, ‘you win this fight and you become the biggest star in British sport and world boxing’. The way he won confirmed it to me. The plan, rather than just keep going in the UK, is to explore and break new markets and boundaries like the Middle East, China. “I could see him fighting in the Bird’s Nest Stadium [Beijing] – and Africa. I want to go worldwide with him. Ali was one of AJ’S inspirations. He knows everything he did.” Sports marketing expert Alun James, of Four Sports and Sponsorships, added: “A Yougov survey showed 20% of the UK population have a favourable view of him. That is a very good number for boxing, which is not a mainstream sport. I think he will certainly be the richest boxer ever and probably surpass Floyd Mayweather, who set the benchmark.” After narrowly avoiding prison in his wayward teens, Joshua has now joined David Beckham, Lewis Hamilton and Andy Murray as one of the poster boys of British sport. And he wants to inspire a new generation of boxers. Vowing to sign every autograph and pose for every selfie, Joshua explained: “I’m a people person. On the estate where I’m from, there were loads of us. Everyone at Wembley, I probably know 20,000 of them. “The main thing I like about what I’m doing is there is some kid who’s going to come up and be inspired about what we’re achieving and go on to do bigger and better things. “That’s why I don’t mind the attention because it’s got a positive rebound.”