Anthony Joshua faces Jake Paul in a bizarre spectacle on Friday, but the Brit's credentials as one of the best heavyweights of his generation should be beyond doubt.
Who is Anthony Joshua? Meet the British boxing heavyweight star facing Jake Paul originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The circus is in town in Miami this week and Anthony Joshua has every intention of making it a painful performance for ringmaster Jake Paul.
When Joshua was at the top of the heavyweight division a few years ago, the notion of him fighting a man whose professional record has largely been amassed against non-boxers would have been fanciful.
But these are perhaps the strangest and most lucrative times in this strangest of all sports. Another peculiarity is Joshua's standing in the sport right now, especially among fans in the United States.
There is a solid school of thought that the 36-year-old's reputation can only be damaged, irrespective of what unfolds against Paul, a man who should not be in the same ring as him.
Still, Joshua's overall body of work casts him as one of the leading heavyweights of the past decade, without question.
MORE:Who did Anthony Joshua lose to? Revisiting Andy Ruiz stunner in 2019, Daniel Dubois and more
Anthony Joshua professional boxing record
Joshua has a professional record of 28 wins and four defeats.
He went unblemished through his first 22 fights before Andy Ruiz Jr turned his dream American debut at Madison Square Garden in a nightmare. The rotund Mexican claimed off the floor in round three to deck Joshua twice before the end of that session and twice more in the seventh, when the end came.
That defeat began a far more moderate run of six wins of four defeats during the second half of Joshua's career. He avenged the loss in an immediate rematch against Ruiz but lost back-to-back distance fights with the otherworldly Oleksandr Usyk before being brutally dispatched by Daniel Dubois at Wembley in September 2024.
Anthony Joshua titles won
Joshua is a two-time unified world heavyweight champion. His first reign began when he clinically dealt with Charles Martin inside two rounds to win the IBF belt in April 2016.
The vacant WBA title followed in a clash for the ages with Wladimir Klitschko a year on from the Martin fight and Joshua continued his road to undisputed with a win over then WBO champion Joseph Parker. That a bout with Deontay Wilder could not be made when the dynamite-fisted American was WBC champion and both he and Joshua were undefeated remains one of boxing's most maddening misses of modern times.
Joshua regained all three belts he lost to Ruiz in his rematch win but made just one more defence against Kubrat Pulev before running into Usyk.
Domestically, Joshua won the Commonwealth title with a first-round KO of Gary Cornish in 2015 and added British gold against old amateur rival Dillian White that December.
AJ's crowning moment in the British vest was his gold medal success at super heavyweight in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Anthony Joshua best wins
Wladimir Klitschko — April 29, 2017 (TKO 11)
Still Joshua's night of nights, a fact that is probably tinged with a little disappointment at this stage. Headlining at a sold-out Wembley Stadium for the first time, AJ exploded into life after four tentative rounds to send the ageing Klitschko to the canvas.
But the veteran former champion was a different proposition to the forlorn fighter who surrendered his belts to Tyson Fury 18 months earlier. By the end of the fifth, Klitschko had Joshua badly hurt. When he floored him with a sledgehammer right in the sixth, the game appeared to be up.
But Joshua managed to hang on and regroup before launching the assault that brought the house down in round 11, when Klitschko unravelled and was floored twice after being almost separated from his sense by a hellacious uppercut.
Andy Ruiz Jr. — December 7, 2019 (UD 12)
Six months after the bout that still defines him in America, Joshua became only the fourth man in heavyweight history to regain the title in an immediate rematch after Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis.
That top line alone places this indisputably among Joshua's finest wins, even if there were red flags for the road ahead. Understandably, AJ looked tentative, verging on gunshy, as he faced down a man who had floored him four times that summer. The addition of assistant coaches Angel Hernandez and Joby Clayton to Joshua's camp alongside chief second Rob McCracken was the start of the muddled thinking that would culminate in the Briton trying and comprehensively failing to outbox Oleksandr Usyk in September 2021.
But on this night in Jeddah, Joshua showed the mental fortitude some still foolishly doubt he possesses. He was punch-perfect against a champion who neglected to take his craft seriously enough after scaling the mountain.
Joseph Parker — March 31, 2018 (UD 12)
A victory that has come to look better with age in light of Parker's impressive late-career renaissance. It's not a win that comes instantly to mind, given it was a scrappy fight, badly refereed by Italian referee Giuseppe Quartarone.
Nevertheless, Joshua was never remotely troubled by Parker, who came into the bout as an undefeated 24-0 fighter in possession of the WBO title. Joshua added that to his IBF and WBA straps.
Dillian Whyte — December 12, 2015 (TKO 7)
After a couple of years of PR-friendly AJ, this chaotic scrap with loathed former amateur rival Whyte revealed the nasty, spiteful character that all heavyweight champions must have lurking somewhere in their souls. Joshua grinned with chilling satisfaction as he laid an opening round beatdown on the 'Bodysnatcher'. Punches landed after the bell sparked an in-ring melee with several members of Whyte's team.
Joshua lost focus amid the chaos and was badly rocked by a short left hook to the temple in round two. He rode out his first major professional storm to deposit Whyte into the ropes with a sweet uppercut in the seventh.
Alexander Povetklin — September 22, 2018 (TKO 7)
The last of four massive, sold-out stadium fights, which began with the Klitschko fight, in the space of 17 months. Joshua was discomforted by the accomplished and heavy-handed Povetkin early on, suffering nose damage.
He asserted himself before halfway and there was a signature spectacular finish, with Povetkin almost punched out of the ring. Frustration was already growing over the lack of an undisputed fight with Deontay Wilder, but this was Joshua's last fight before his ill-fated showdown against Ruiz. He would never have it so good again.
Anthony Joshua knockout record
Of his 28 professional wins, Joshua has won 25 via knockout.
Joseph Parker was the first man to take him the distance in their world title unification clash, while Joshua went 12 while boxing to instructions during the Ruiz rematch.
Having twice got the distance without reward against Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua returned to action in 2023 with a forgettable 12-round win over Jermaine Franklin.
Joshua's 25 KOs from 28 fights give him a knockout ratio of 89.29%
Category: General Sports
