Anthony Joshua has said he is considering opening a care home for retired boxers with health problems.
Speaking to Lauren Laverne on Sunday’s episode of BBC Radio 4 Desert Island DiscThe former world heavyweight champion said he had discussed the issues facing ex-boxers with his former boxing coach, John Oliver.
“We’ve been talking about opening a care home because they’re suffering alone,” Joshua said. “It would be part of my boxing legacy, giving something back to the sport that raised me.”
The 34-year-old boxer reflected on the risks of his sport: “All I want is to stay healthy, because the most important thing I risk is my health,” he said.
“We notice when a fighter’s health is deteriorating, but we don’t really discuss it. Our only focus is winning.”
Joshua has spoken about how boxing helped change his life as a teenager, having been born in Watford and spending part of his childhood at boarding school in Nigeria.
When Joshua was a teenager in England, he had run-ins with police and was banned from Watford town centre after fighting. “I started getting into trouble and I wanted to make money,” he says. When Joshua was 17, his mother moved to London and he got into drug dealing. “I was kind of homeless. I moved into a hostel.”
His cousin Ben introduced Joshua to Finchley Amateur Boxing Club. “I’m so glad I found boxing. It changed me a lot,” he says. “If you focus, it can change your life.” Three years later, Joshua competed in the Olympics. This August will mark 12 years since he took home the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, beating Roberto Cammarel. He said Olympic training was “really tough,” and told Laverne that the psychological pressure can be intense, especially when dealing with defeat. “When I’ve lost before, it’s been mentally draining,” he said. He revealed that he once spent five days in a dark room to “heal” himself.
Joshua added: “That’s why I love music, it always gives me the vibe of what I’m trying to achieve.” His eight songs include boxing classics like Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, which Joshua often uses in training, and Stormzy’s previous ringwalk song, “Shut Up”.
Joshua said he was focusing on the business side of boxing to make retirement more comfortable. When asked by Laverne about his decision to take part in a big-money bout in Saudi Arabia, a country criticised for its poor human rights record, he replied: “I’m in Saudi Arabia for boxing. I’m not going to get involved in politics.”
His son, JJ, is 8 years old. Joshua doesn’t want his son to go into boxing: “If I had a choice, I would ask him to go into accounting.”
