Champion Joshua is also a knockout with mum
BoTh thumbs up and a huge smile are all that’s needed when your little boy has just won the fight of his life.
of course, yeta odusanya’s son, heavyweight boxer anthony Joshua, is not so little at 6ft 6in tall and 17 stone but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped being her baby.
and Mrs odusanya, 51, was clearly very relieved that he left his encounter with ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko with his heavyweight title on saturday.
asked if she was proud of him as she left the flat they share yesterday, wearing what appeared to be a wedding dress, she simply gave a double thumbs up and a big grin before climbing into the £80,000 white Range Rover he had bought her.
During a round of media interviews, Joshua, 27, smiled fondly as he spoke of the moment his care worker mother – who he banned from watching the fight ringside – told him she was proud of his incredible triumph in front of 90,000 spectators at Wembley.
The father- of- one still lives with her and their dog Roxy in a former council flat in North London, which he bought for her for £174,000 after turning professional in 2013.
he said he had been in touch with his mother online and added that his 18-month- old son JJ ‘loves my shiner’ – the bruise he sustained in the fight. For the past decade, Joshua has been in an on-off relationship with the mother of his son, former schoolfriend Nicole osbourne, who he bought a £500,000 flat not far from his home. But while he is currently single, there is one woman who always comes before any others – his mother.
he has previously credited his close relationship with Mrs odusanya as being key to his rapid rise from amateur to boxing superstar – having now claimed three separate heavyweight titles.
But he is so fiercely protective that since winning olympic gold at London 2012 he has not let her watch his fights, either live or even on TV. yes- terday, however, he conceded that she might have watched saturday’s fight on TV.
‘If so, she will have seen why I didn’t want her there,’ he said. ‘This is a pretty brutal sport.’ Despite earning roughly £15million for the fight, Joshua told a news conference all he wanted to do was to go back to ‘normal living’.
asked what his plans were for yesterday, he said: ‘I’m a good man, I’m a family man, and I love life. how do I plan to celebrate? Wake up midday for once. Wake up midday and then catch up with my family.
‘Normally I take a holiday, but I think this time what I’m going to do is just pop round to some of up. my Because family’s we house spend and a catch quarter of the year training, and then normally you go on holiday and then straight back into training camp. I don’t want to do that, I want to catch up with family. and that’s it.’ Last week, Mrs odusanya said: ‘We’re very close ... he’s always looking out for me. I still can’t watch his fights.’ Joshua, who has two sisters and a brother, has previously told how he did not want his fame and success to jeopardise his relationship with his mother, saying: ‘I’ll take the belt home and she’s proud, but I want to keep our mother-son relationship on a level.’