Former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has revealed he still lives with his mother despite having a reported net worth of £200m (NZ$414m).
The British Olympic champion claimed his first world title in 2016 when he won the IBF belt before beating Wladimir Klitschko in a unification bout thefollowing year.
Joshua defended his crown against Kiwi Joseph Parker in Cardiff before suffering his first career defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019. He beat the Mexican in a rematch before losing his belts again after losing to Oleksandr Usyk.
According to Forbes, he was the 28th highest-paid athlete this year.
In an interview with Louis Theroux on the BBC, the 34-year-old admitted that his Nigerian background family meant everything and any future girlfriends would have to.
“I still live with my mum. In our culture, we grew up in our own family home, we support our parents. Why am I going to move out and leave my mum by herself, for some girl?” he said.
“Family is the most important thing. When a girl gets with me, she ain’t just marrying me, she’s marrying my family.”
Joshua also opened up about his post-fight reaction after losing his re-match to Usyk last year. After the announcement of the judges’ scorecards, the Brit threw two of Usyk’s belts out of the ring. He later returned and gave an emotional speech.
“So I threw [the belts] because that’s what I felt like. I grabbed the mic, I addressed the crowd. Could I have done it better? Of course I could have,” he told Theroux.
“I had finished a 12-round fight. I felt frustrated and annoyed. I knew I was out of the title race.
“The questions started. ‘What is he like, where’s his head at?’ All this ‘can he be three-time champion of the world?’
“People create this narrative and put pressure on me. It’s too much. Gone are the days where it was for the fun. When you’re just doing it for the passion, you’re a prospect.”
