Anthony Joshua

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Presenter0:05

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were castaway to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:45

My castaway this week is the boxer Anthony Joshua. He's already earned his place in the history books as the first British heavyweight to win both Olympic gold and a world title. In fact, he's a two-time World Heavyweight Unified Champion and is currently on a winning streak in pursuit of a third. He took up boxing at the age of 18, but he was already a fighter. Banned from the centre of his hometown of Watford for getting into a brawl, he moved to London and followed his cousin to the gym, where sport gave him the framework to turn his life around. Within five years, he was an Olympic champion, winning gold at London 2012 before turning pro.

Presenter1:21

Since then, he's made it his mission to use his head as well as his fists. He's a master fortune that, according to feverish press speculation, has made him one of the richest athletes in British history, though he makes almost as many headlines for his relatively frugal lifestyle and philanthropy as he does for his wealth. He says, I always think my role is to inspire people. I know for a fact there will be a kid somewhere who looks at me and thinks I can do that and will find their way to a gym and end up doing more than I have done.

Presenter1:51

Anthony Joshua, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Anthony Joshua1:53

Thank you for having me today.

Presenter1:55

That's a pleasure. So let's start with that kid then who finds their way into a gym and it changes their life because that's what happened to you. But it's interesting that it took a while because you'd always been sporty. You were great at football. You ran the 100 metres in 11.6 seconds at secondary school apparently. But none of that stuck. It wasn't until you found boxing and you described that moment once. I heard you describe it as a feeling of, ah, this is a bit of me.

Anthony Joshua2:21

Yeah.

Presenter2:22

What exactly was a bit of you?

Anthony Joshua2:25

Football is good. I think a lot of young men and women play football, but for me it was just like playing in school. And the thing I used to hate about football is that

Anthony Joshua2:34

When it used to rain, when it was snowing, it would be freezing outside. So when I found boxing, I used to get into a few fights'cause I used to go clubbing and stuff like that. So uh we used to have fun in the clubs and maybe get into a fight. Just get in a lot of trouble. So two things I loved about boxing is that I was fighting and everyone was patting me on the back.

Presenter2:52

So you were being praised for

Anthony Joshua2:53

That was a massive contrast.

Anthony Joshua2:56

On one end of it I was getting in trouble and then the other end of it I was getting praised. So I was like, That's better. I'm doing it in a controlled environment and secondly, I was indoors so I could box all year round without worrying about being freezing. So it worked for me actually.

Presenter3:11

People talk about you having a good boxing IQ. What does that mean? And is it something that you're born with or do you have to learn it?

Anthony Joshua3:17

I think you're born with the instinct, the competitive nature, and in the IQ you definitely have to be taught it. So that means positioning in the ring. What we call it is a silent conversation between boxers where I'll look at you and say, I'm not going to attack you here. I need a bit of a breather. The other boxer looks at me and says, Thank God because I need a bit of a breather as well.

Presenter3:34

Mm-hmm.

Presenter3:39

I love the idea that that's going on while the audience are maybe seeing something completely different.

Anthony Joshua3:45

Yeah, you're reading the body language, the eyes, their position in the ring, you're taking in all this information.

Presenter3:50

So obviously you're training at the minute, AJ. I mean how much pressure do you have to put on your body to stay at your peak and be ready for that big announcement and that big fight?

Anthony Joshua3:58

It's a lot. The thing is with me, I'm I'm still in the community. I'm still a local boy as well, so

Anthony Joshua4:04

It's hard because I'm trying to be a professional boxer and be the best I can be, but yet I'm still trying to be the same guy that grew up with all my friends and stuff like that. So it's a massive balance. So I get more mental pressure. Physically I'm good. It's just where my mind is at times.

Presenter4:18

Okay, so is that what maintaining the right mindset?

Anthony Joshua4:21

Yeah, I think maintaining the right mindset. And that's why I love music because I feel like music can always set the tone for me with what I'm trying to achieve at a certain time. That's why I've got such a big that's why I like maybe reggae, classical, hip hop.

Presenter4:27

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Joshua4:34

At the minute I'm in my classical phase because I need to just settle my mind down a bit.

Presenter4:38

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Joshua4:39

And uh focus.

Presenter4:40

But music's always been a big thing for you. Am I right in thinking that you you thought of of becoming a sound engineer at one point? You actually did a a diploma when you were young.

Anthony Joshua4:46

You actually did it at the diploma.

Anthony Joshua4:48

Yeah, I did, I did. When I was in trouble

Anthony Joshua4:51

I wanted to show that I was a not a a waste of time to society, so I thought let me get myself enrolled in college.

Anthony Joshua4:59

To show the police that I'm not a troublesome kid, I'm I'm someone that wants to sort my life out I'm constantly getting in trouble and um was on youth offenders and all this stuff. So kids if you're out there you can turn your life around if you focus. So uh yeah, I uh went to college, I enrolled, I started doing um sound engineering.

Presenter5:18

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Joshua5:19

Done a music course was really good.

Presenter5:21

You know that note of music? I think we'd better hear your first disc. What have you gone for, Anthony, and why?

Anthony Joshua5:26

I love Bob Marley, water legend, revolutionary singer. And you know, I just love reggae music. Growing up, my dad was a raster.

Anthony Joshua5:35

So he had the big speakers in his house, had the stilled drums, the instruments and that was my first introduction to reggae music. So I've always wondered, right, my heritage is actually Nigerian. But I've always had this attachment to reggae, which is Caribbean. And I think it's because of growing up my dad was a rasta. Okay, imagine looking out at the sea, sitting on the beach, the sun's beating, I'm not in a rush to go anywhere, and I've just got Bob Marley waiting in vain playing.

Speaker 36:06

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua6:06

Yeah.

Speaker 36:06

I don't

Anthony Joshua6:07

One I'm with

Anthony Joshua6:08

Yeah.

Speaker 36:12

I don't want no waiting day for your love.

Speaker 36:18

Tip.

Speaker 36:20

The burning first time I kissed my eyes

Speaker 36:26

My horse says follow tonight.

Speaker 36:30

Yeah.

Speaker 36:31

But I know now.

Presenter6:33

Bob Marley and the Whalers waiting in vain. So Anthony Joshua, in the past you've described how much you love it when you knock an opponent out and that you've got no remorse. I mean obviously it's fighting talk, but it just seems so at odds with the person sitting opposite me today. Can you explain that contradiction a little bit?

Anthony Joshua6:52

When you look at a lion on social media and they're showing affection, you think oh they're so amazing I'd love to give one of those a cuddle

Anthony Joshua7:02

Then you put a gazelle in front of a line.

Speaker 37:03

Right.

Anthony Joshua7:04

And you see his pupils widen and its focus and attention because I feel we all have that nature, right?

Anthony Joshua7:12

I'm a social person, I love company, I love to talk to people, but when it's time to eat, I love to hunt.

Presenter7:18

Huh.

Anthony Joshua7:18

That's just in my nature.

Presenter7:18

That

Presenter7:20

When that happens, when you make that switch, is Anthony Joshua a different person to A. J., to Fermi, as you were when you were growing up?

Anthony Joshua7:28

Always a warrior. Always. I just found boxing and I channel my energy. So it was all about channeling my energy.

Speaker 17:35

Uh

Speaker 37:35

Mm.

Anthony Joshua7:35

And luckily enough I found it at a time when

Speaker 17:35

Uh

Anthony Joshua7:39

I feel like I needed boxing and I used boxing to

Anthony Joshua7:42

Better myself and so on and so forth.

Presenter7:45

So you were born in Watford, one of seven children, to your mum Yetta and your dad Robert. Your mum is a social worker and I know that she's a huge influence on your life, so tell me a bit more about her.

Anthony Joshua7:56

Mum, amazing woman. The cycle of life, right? Will mean one day my mum won't be here with me. And it hurts already to think that because she's done so well to raise someone like me.

Speaker 18:06

Like me.

Anthony Joshua8:07

Tough, hard-headed.

Anthony Joshua8:10

Hardworking son, and I know how tough it must have been for her. You know, she was a single mum at a certain stage in her life.

Speaker 18:15

And was

Anthony Joshua8:17

And now as a dad, I really applaud her for the effort she put in raising me and my sister. It's not easy being a social worker as well, a lot of pressure. She's worked hard. Taking me to school in the morning, I d I never used to like school as well, so getting me to school was also a chore as well. It wasn't easy like, yeah, school, I'm up, let's go. I was like, school?

Presenter8:35

Oh, like school every step of the way.

Anthony Joshua8:37

Yeah, every step of the way, trying to look ways to bunk off school, putting mum under immense stress, but

Presenter8:37

Every step of it.

Anthony Joshua8:44

Now I can only pay her back with my love.

Presenter8:46

Yeah. And when you think about the values that she had, what do you think you've inherited from her?

Anthony Joshua8:46

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua8:51

It's a responsibility for me to make sure the young ones coming up get looked after and they have a uncle, a fun call I call it, the fun uncle that can take care of

Presenter8:59

There it is.

Presenter9:01

The two of you, you and your mum t are still very close. And until not that long ago, um, you still lived together in her flat, her ex-council flat, you'd bought it for her.

Anthony Joshua9:01

Yeah.

Speaker 39:01

Uh

Speaker 39:03

Uh

Anthony Joshua9:03

Until

Speaker 39:04

Uh

Presenter9:09

I was interested that people were surprised by that, you know, that as soon as you made money, you didn't just immediately buy a mansion in the Shires and and move out.

Anthony Joshua9:16

I won't

Presenter9:17

I wonder what they were missing.

Anthony Joshua9:20

Um, cause it's a natural thing to do as you get to a certain age, you want to move out. Probably you want your freedom. I think that's what it is, you want your freedom.

Anthony Joshua9:28

When you step up as a man in the house, freedom is making sure your parents are taken care of as well. I think that gave me a mental freedom knowing that I didn't leave the nest that wasn't

Anthony Joshua9:38

The foundations weren't strong yet because I didn't want to leave my mum alone. Do you know what I mean? So I wanted to make sure that my mum's foundations were strong, the nest was strong, so when I leave, mum's good. And for me that's freedom knowing that no matter where I am in the world, my mum's happy she's taken care of and I'm free.

Speaker 19:47

Uh

Presenter9:48

Uh

Presenter9:54

So had all the other kids flown the nest and you wanted to get your mum self?

Anthony Joshua9:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Anthony Joshua9:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did, yeah, definitely.

Presenter9:58

Yeah.

Presenter9:59

But I love the idea that, you know, you were still going the laundrette in gold as green when you were.

Anthony Joshua10:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I had a mentality of, right? So being a world champion, living in the flat, I said, if I can conquer the world.

Anthony Joshua10:12

It like in my bedroom,'cause that's like where I handle all my business. I'm someone that likes to stay in my room. And then when I get the opportunity to go and conquer more and I get that mansion that I dream of, I'll be able to take over the universe.

Presenter10:23

Two

Anthony Joshua10:24

That was my mentality.

Presenter10:25

Does your mum watch you fights? Does she come to the fights?

Anthony Joshua10:28

She will come but she actually stays in the hotel and she'll pray.

Presenter10:31

Just too difficult to to watch.

Anthony Joshua10:33

I can imagine so. She it's her son. It's it's hard to watch, it's tough.

Presenter10:37

Hmm.

Anthony Joshua10:37

But one thing I always did, I always kept boxing and my lifestyle separate. So mum I'm your son before I'm a boxer, so I'll always come home as your son no matter if I win or I lose.

Presenter10:48

And does she call you? A. J. O. Does she call

Anthony Joshua10:50

Yeah.

Presenter10:51

Uh

Anthony Joshua10:51

Yeah.

Presenter10:51

Uh The

Anthony Joshua10:51

Family. She calls me Fermi.

Presenter10:52

I think we're better have some more music, Anthony Joshua's second disc today. What's it going to be and why are you taking it to your island?

Anthony Joshua10:59

Wow, the one and only Adele hometown glory

Anthony Joshua11:03

So I'm on this island.

Anthony Joshua11:05

I'm stuck as a desert island.

Anthony Joshua11:09

And I'm just thinking about my hometown man, everything that I represent, everything that I stand for.

Anthony Joshua11:15

And there's no better place than hometown, than my hometown. And I want all the glory. I love the glory of being a hometown boy. North, northwest London to Watford. For me, that's my hometown glory. Shout out to everyone in North West. Shout out to everyone in Watford. This one's for you.

Speaker 311:32

Run my hometown

Speaker 311:35

Many memories of phrase round my hometown

Speaker 311:44

The people of May.

Speaker 311:47

How the wonders of my world How the wonders of my world How the wonders of this world are the wonders

Presenter12:01

Who's it now?

Presenter12:03

Adele and Hometown Glory.

Presenter12:06

So tell me a bit more about your dad then. You said he was a raster when you were growing up. What was your relationship like back then?

Anthony Joshua12:09

What was your

Anthony Joshua12:11

With my dad, cool, dad's working hard. Uh mum and dad work together so like there was a massive contrast between dad's house and mum's house. Okay. Yeah, but lived in the same area.

Presenter12:19

Okay.

Presenter12:22

What was the difference?

Anthony Joshua12:23

Dad's was more like reggae type of vibe, music, in and out, his friends would be there. You could just sit back in the corner and kind of admire my dad. I'd look up to my dad. He was big Josh. He was the original Big Josh. Big guy, dreadlocks. He worked in a carpet factory as well, so we would just run across all the carpets in this big warehouse when we were younger. He liked motorbikes as well, so he had a few crosses in his garden. So I just used to sit on the crosses and imagine riding them when I was younger.

Presenter12:53

There's a school experience I want to ask you about because you didn't just go to school over here. At one point your mum your mum moved back to Nigeria. So you were twelve and she was going to start a business over there, so she kind of moved everyone back.

Speaker 312:57

Uh

Anthony Joshua12:57

Yeah.

Speaker 312:58

Nigeria

Speaker 312:59

Dude,

Speaker 313:01

Yeah.

Speaker 313:03

I see.

Anthony Joshua13:03

But

Anthony Joshua13:05

Yeah.

Presenter13:05

She then sent you to boarding school, which must have been a complete culture shock.

Anthony Joshua13:09

Massive. It was really different because I said boarding school, that was one thing. It's very strict. You know, if you're in a Nigerian household, the saying is

Anthony Joshua13:20

You're either going to be a lawyer or a doctor. Like, there's no sports. Now I think a lot of African parents are starting to see YouTube, music, even they're telling their son, go unbox, go unbox. Back in the day, no. So education was important. So it was tough having to fix up, wash your own clothes, iron your own clothes, share a dorm.

Presenter13:38

Yeah.

Presenter13:44

Yeah, and also just to be away from that big family that you were telling us about.

Anthony Joshua13:44

And also just

Anthony Joshua13:46

Big family that you were telling us about. Yeah, but my cousin Deji he always says that when I came back yeah, I had a little Nigerian accent and he said like you were like come come and punch me in my stomach yeah. So he hit me in my stomach yeah and I was like imagine I was like 13 he said bro from that day it was like you were just turned into a beast

Presenter14:06

You're unstoppable.

Anthony Joshua14:07

Yeah.

Presenter14:07

Uh

Anthony Joshua14:09

Because remember our cousin's my age and stuff and he was like from that day I knew he was a beast.

Anthony Joshua14:13

When I was like 18, 19, I started boxing, and by 21, I was Olympic champion. So I was so short.

Presenter14:17

I'm sorry.

Speaker 114:17

Uh

Anthony Joshua14:19

And I was in London, then all of a sudden I had to move to Sheffield to join the Olympic squad, so I'd moved away from all my friends and family. So I already had that experience of being taken away from something I love from a young age. So I've never really had the feeling of missing people. I just do what I've got to do.

Presenter14:38

Alright, Anthony, let's go to the music. I want to hear your third disc. What have you got for us?

Anthony Joshua14:42

We have someone from Nigeria, a legend, an icon. Yes, Felakuti.

Presenter14:46

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua14:49

Water no g enemy

Presenter14:51

Why this track?

Anthony Joshua14:52

This one because for me this is like

Anthony Joshua14:56

Connecting to that reggae feeling, it's just the beat is phenomenal. This is like waking up in the morning after you've had a good eight-hour sleep, you're feeling good, the sun's shining, you're ready for the day. You put this on because water, no matter if your brother drowned in it, no matter if you can't drink it for a month, everyone needs water. So it's like be like water, don't have enemies, be good to everyone, let everyone be good to you, and enjoy your day. So that's why I like Felicuti, water, no get enemy.

Presenter15:58

Felicuti and water nugget enemy.

Presenter16:02

Anthony Joshua, you didn't settle in Nigeria. The family came back to live in Watford and it sounds like you really started drifting a bit as your teens progressed and eventually you got in serious trouble. So you were banned from Watford town centre. What exactly was going on?

Anthony Joshua16:18

What's going on?

Presenter16:19

Yeah, what was the lead up to it?

Anthony Joshua16:21

I think it was that period of leaving school

Anthony Joshua16:24

to finding what I want to do and going to college that period between like sixteen and eighteen.

Anthony Joshua16:33

But it kinda started from fifte oh probably fourteen actually.

Anthony Joshua16:37

Where

Anthony Joshua16:38

I'm coming like a young man in a way.

Anthony Joshua16:41

Finding a girlfriend. We had a little crew where we used to make music and stuff. So I started smoking. Now I started exploring a different environment, a different lifestyle.

Anthony Joshua16:54

And

Presenter16:54

And that's what teenagers do. You were sort of pushing the boundaries, you know, misbehaving a little bit.

Anthony Joshua16:55

You were you were so

Anthony Joshua16:57

What else? Yeah, looking at adults, oh, they smoke. Let me see what this is about. It's like and we usually sit outside in the estate and just have a cigarette and stuff like that. So, yeah, then I started getting in trouble, wanted to make money. Wasn't troublesome, wanted to make money, wheeling and dealing.

Presenter17:02

Yeah.

Presenter17:07

And so

Anthony Joshua17:13

From a young age.

Presenter17:15

I think you're on record as saying, you know, you were selling booze on for a profit, if you could do a bit of that.

Anthony Joshua17:20

Or whatever it took. I just wanted to make money. That was my goal. I had jobs. I had jobs as a bricklayer. I had jobs as I used to work at an airline.

Anthony Joshua17:28

I used to sell holidays, package holidays. I had a job in office in Brent Cross, so I tried my hand at different jobs.

Presenter17:34

At the shoe shop.

Anthony Joshua17:35

Yeah, I used to hate it so much. Customers are rude. I'm a bad boy from the streets, you know what I'm saying? I'm thinking, you don't know, outside here, I'd knock you out.

Presenter17:41

You know, no, I

Speaker 117:41

Aside here.

Presenter17:42

Yeah.

Presenter17:45

But look, all of that is kind of normal teenage stuff, isn't it? Figuring out who you're going to be and and kind of misbehaving a little bit. But there's a point at which it got a little bit out of hand, it got a bit more serious. What what happened there?

Anthony Joshua17:48

Should we rename it?

Anthony Joshua17:50

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua17:57

My mum moved to London and at the time I was kind of homeless. Even though I had family in Watford, it's not their responsibility, so I declared myself homeless. I moved into a hostel, so I was living on my own completely.

Anthony Joshua18:09

I was at the age of like seventeen.

Anthony Joshua18:12

And you gotta fan for yourself, gotta make money. So at that time, I was smoking weed.

Speaker 318:14

How many more So

Speaker 318:16

Uh

Speaker 118:16

Uh

Anthony Joshua18:18

And then someone asks you, Where'd you get our weed from? And then next minute you know the person that gets weed and then you see that you could make a profit on it. Yes, long story short, my friend's mum used to smoke weed. Our boyfriend smoked weed as well, so we found his stash, we used to take some of his weed, didn't know how much it was.

Speaker 318:25

Hmm.

Anthony Joshua18:35

And then we just used to sell it in the estate.

Presenter18:37

So you were dealing, you were selling it on. How did the fight start? Where did the fighting?

Anthony Joshua18:40

Oh, the problem, that that was just really like the fight and stuff. That was just being outside. If you're outside past twelve AM.

Anthony Joshua18:48

on a Saturday night, you're more than likely going to get into trouble.

Anthony Joshua18:52

You know, more than like if you're in the wrong place for too long, if you're amongst the wrong type of people, you know, someone will look at you wrong and hey, what are you looking at? You know what I mean? And that type of stuff, yeah. So just use a fight now and again. Not always. As I said, I wasn't always troublesome.

Anthony Joshua19:05

But I'm really glad that I found boxing, cause it changed me a lot.

Presenter19:09

Yeah, let's talk about how that happened then. So, your cousin, who was already a boxer, your cousin Ben.

Anthony Joshua19:14

Because of Ben.

Presenter19:16

He stepped in and he suggested that you go to the gym he used. That was the Finchley Amateur Boxing Club. So at this point you've been banned from Waffer Town Centre for fighting. So at that point you moved to London.

Anthony Joshua19:23

Waffertang Centre.

Anthony Joshua19:28

Yeah, so this was a new rule that the police are putting where I think if you're getting in a certain amount of trouble, community service, all this stuff, then what they'll do, they tell you, Listen, you're not allowed in this proximity. At the time I was on tag.

Presenter19:40

So you had an electronic turgo.

Anthony Joshua19:41

Yeah, and I didn't want to register at my hostel.

Presenter19:44

Hmm.

Anthony Joshua19:44

'Cause the police didn't know where I live.

Presenter19:44

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua19:46

So they went to my mum's looking for me, so I said, Yeah, yeah, I live there

Anthony Joshua19:50

And then uh they put me on tag there. That's when I started chilling with my cousin a lot more. I was like seventeen, eighteen. I had money, so I had a car and stuff, so I used to pick him up.

Anthony Joshua20:00

And then I took him to the boxing gym a few times, and I used to look and think, I could do this.

Anthony Joshua20:05

What's this fighting like? This is easy. I'll smoke all these kids in here.

Anthony Joshua20:09

And then it's only until I've done it you realize how tough it is.

Presenter20:12

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua20:13

And the thing I loved is that there's a community aspect. So I'm meeting people from different backgrounds.

Anthony Joshua20:18

I'm talking to them, they're talking to me, they're telling me, Oh yeah, watch this guy called Mike Tyson, watch this guy called Muhammad Ali, all this stuff. I didn't know who these people were before really. I started watching them on YouTube and I was like, Wow, these guys are inspirational

Anthony Joshua20:31

And he had all of his training regime on YouTube.

Anthony Joshua20:34

And I followed it and I said if he could do it and I do it, if I run at 3am in the morning, I have that passion, I have that Mike Tyson instinct, I could do it. And I just put myself up to the test and I thought I'd try it. So I stopped smoking, stopped raving, started going to gym more, started reading because I read that a lot of boxers used to read when I was in training camp. Certain people were like, well, you stopped smoking, you stopped doing this, you stopped doing that. And I'm like, yeah, I can see this boxing thing could work if I stick to it.

Anthony Joshua21:02

But remember this is at the age of like 18 19

Anthony Joshua21:05

I stuck with it and as I said, three years later I was Olympic champion.

Presenter21:09

We've got to make room for the music. Your fourth choice today, what's it going to be, AJ?

Anthony Joshua21:13

This is Survivor Eye of the Tiger.

Presenter21:17

I mean it had to be done.

Anthony Joshua21:18

I'm telling you, rising up back on the street, like took my time, took my chances, I went the distance, now I'm back on my feet, just a man and his will to survive.

Presenter21:27

Have you ever trained to this track?

Anthony Joshua21:29

I might train to it today.

Anthony Joshua21:31

Of course I'll train to this. What a track this is.

Speaker 321:38

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive.

Speaker 121:47

I'm tigerist look of a fight, rising up to the challenge of our rise.

Speaker 321:55

The last known survivor storms is spread in the night, and this world tunnels are in the eye.

Presenter22:05

Survivor and I of the Tiger. So Anthony Joshua, your amateur career went from strength to strength, and you were selected for the British Olympic team. How optimistic were you about your medal hopes going into London twenty twelve?

Anthony Joshua22:19

For me?

Anthony Joshua22:21

Everything that I've achieved so far is better than where I started. So I'm like, it is what it is. I'm just gonna ride the wave, do my best and whatever happens, happens.

Presenter22:31

So you were chilled about it?

Anthony Joshua22:32

So chilled. I didn't even know what was going on myself. I just come from being on tag.

Anthony Joshua22:38

To now going to Finchley, to now representing Great Britain at the Boxing Olympics, I was thinking what's happening in my life. All I knew is that the training was really tough.

Presenter22:49

So take me back to the gold medal fight. What do you remember about it?

Anthony Joshua22:52

I remember being like winning

Anthony Joshua22:55

the semifinals and I was like, Yeah, it's lit. Like being in London, I'm a hometown boxer, heavyweight. Like I've beaten this guy already before. He's really good fighter, but he's he's it's gonna be close. And I just thought, you know what, just I always had that mindset where

Anthony Joshua23:12

No matter what happens.

Anthony Joshua23:14

Everything I've done is better than where I began.

Anthony Joshua23:17

Even if I just had one fight, at least I got to have one fight. So just give my best. And I went in there, we're fighting now. And

Anthony Joshua23:27

We've kind of gone to this point where it's a draw, and they have to go back and count every punch, so they call it a counter back. So it's quite intense. We're waiting.

Anthony Joshua23:37

And they say the boxer.

Anthony Joshua23:39

In the blue corner and I've looked and I've s that's me

Speaker 323:42

Yeah, Jack.

Anthony Joshua23:43

Yeah, just

Speaker 323:44

Just look down at yourself.

Anthony Joshua23:45

Yeah, it's so surreal because as I said it's like

Anthony Joshua23:49

I'm just one of the guys that's just come up in three years from nowhere, and I'm now an Olympic champion. And I said, all right, cool.

Presenter23:55

And what was it like that moment on the podium?

Anthony Joshua23:58

I always felt like

Anthony Joshua23:59

the work begins now. So I thought if I stay here for a little bit longer

Anthony Joshua24:04

When I finally made that transition to the professionals, I would have gathered so much experience. But the old saying is, strike while the iron's hot. So the iron was as hot as it could be.

Speaker 124:08

Bye.

Anthony Joshua24:14

And after a year of traveling around, meeting people,

Anthony Joshua24:19

And I'm sitting with all these educated people around business tables and

Anthony Joshua24:23

I met Lennox Lewis, I sat with him and

Presenter24:26

Did he give you advice?

Anthony Joshua24:27

Yeah, you gave me some sound advice.

Presenter24:29

What did he say?

Anthony Joshua24:30

He was like, listen, don't rush, start off small, don't put pressure on yourself.

Anthony Joshua24:34

I was like, I want all that pressure. The iron's hot right now. That was my mindset. But I understand what he's saying. It's like, listen, take your time. If you're gonna get to where you're going, you're always gonna get there. But.

Anthony Joshua24:46

You're inexperienced, so take your time. I've had to meet lawyers now. I had to meet accountants. I've never had an accountant. All my money was stashed under my bed before. Now I'm meeting accountants opening up bank accounts. I was like, Okay, this is different. And as I always said, for me, the biggest struggle was

Anthony Joshua25:05

Learning the business. It wasn't fighting. Now securing my future was now the biggest struggle.

Presenter25:12

Was that a challenge that you enjoyed? Like learning a new language or something and getting really good at it?

Anthony Joshua25:16

Getting ready.

Anthony Joshua25:17

Yeah, I feel like one of my strengths is putting the team together. I'm really good at it, and that's maybe being able to speak to different people, connecting with different cultures. I've got a vast team of great people. For me, it was always like, yo, when it's all said and done, make sure I leave this business with something because I don't want to have to come back and fight when I'm an old man, because it's so tough.

Presenter25:23

Can it

Speaker 125:23

And so

Presenter25:37

It's amazing looking back at that Olympics because it it nearly didn't happen for you. There was a a sort of slide in doors moment in twenty eleven when you know you were speeding, stopped by the police. and they find cannabis in the car and and charged you with the intent to supply.

Presenter25:53

So you were given a non-custodial sentence after pleading guilty, 100 hours, I think, of unpaid work, community centre.

Anthony Joshua25:58

Yeah.

Presenter26:00

What were you what were you doing?

Anthony Joshua26:01

For unpaid work. Yeah. I worked in uh in Luckman. I used to garden for someone. I used to pick their was it? All their fruits and vegetables and tidy up and all that stuff.

Presenter26:12

I mean, when you look back at that and think of, you know, everything that followed on, like you said, that moment when you were able to win the gold medal, everything that's happened for you afterwards.

Speaker 126:17

Uh

Anthony Joshua26:17

Okay.

Presenter26:21

And at that moment where it it nearly didn't come together.

Anthony Joshua26:24

Yeah.

Presenter26:25

How do you feel?

Anthony Joshua26:27

That's why I feel I want to help people.

Anthony Joshua26:30

Because I have had an opportunity. Boxing helped me.

Presenter26:33

Let's have some more music, Eijo.

Anthony Joshua26:35

Okay, we got the big boy, the one and only. Scraps. If you know, you know.

Presenter26:41

So he's never been on Desert Island discs before, so you're going to have to intro scraps to our listener.

Anthony Joshua26:44

Introduction.

Anthony Joshua26:48

How's it going, listeners? I hope you're well. This is someone called Scraps. He is a UK.

Anthony Joshua26:55

Hip-hop slash rap artist from Crooklewoods and this song here I would say is the in our community right we call it one of the national anthems so when you're at a party and this song goes off everyone just knows what's going on so this is called scraps one more chance dj let's go scraps listen bomb check it y'all who's that bipping in the beamer f's on my feet as fendiest not feeler if you saw my interior you would think i got saying nana nah baby girl man i'm just a healer i'd be in the trap with some f of amnesia beg

Speaker 327:34

F ⁇ ing Macinette let me get the f ⁇ es cheaper I'm a hustler, ask me no with the eminent I'll deliver you a box to your door like a pizza Two man beef in a black seven Caesar Three five seven and an email let me answer Bear my

Presenter27:48

Scraps and one more chance. So Anthony Joshua, after your success at the Olympics, you were awarded an MBE, you turned professional and you started your ascent up the ranks, becoming IBF Heavyweight Champion in twenty sixteen. How much did all that success change your life?

Speaker 327:55

Term professional.

Anthony Joshua28:07

So I was famous but I was still broke.

Anthony Joshua28:11

I was like, sitting ain't adding up here. My thing was always be low-key and make money. So I always felt like being understated was important, but making a hell of a lot of money was better. But now I was broke because I had stopped getting in trouble and I was well known. So I was like, alright, I gotta be smart here. Alright, now it's about business. So I'm now connecting with Eddie. I got my management team. Now I started my own management company.

Presenter28:37

So this is Eddie Hearn at Match Room, your

Anthony Joshua28:39

Yeah, my promoter now we're doing now I'm like it was time to do some proper business now with my management team now let's go out to the market and try and

Anthony Joshua28:48

bring commercial blue chip companies into boxing to showcase that we're not gonna cancel fights a week before, we're not gonna trash talk and F them blind in front of kids on the T V. We're gonna try and conduct ourselves properly. We started two five eight marketing.

Presenter29:04

So that's interesting because you've got a couple of companies with 258, and I wondered about the significance of that number. What does it mean?

Anthony Joshua29:10

So it came from one of my favorite rappers, Nipsey Hustle. It's that twenty five eight mindset. twenty four seven is cool, but we go the extra mile, we gotta put work in and if I had an extra hour and an extra day,

Anthony Joshua29:23

What would I do of it? And I'd strictly put it to the hustle.

Presenter29:25

And that's

Anthony Joshua29:26

And that's the mentality we have to have. It's 25.8.

Presenter29:29

Twenty-five hours, eight days a week.

Anthony Joshua29:30

You know it.

Presenter29:31

So Anthony, one of your biggest fights was in April 2017 against the Ukrainian boxing superstar Vladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium. You were defending the IBF heavyweight title and the fight took place in front of a post-war record audience, 90,000 spectators on home turf, 60 million people watching at home on pay-per-view.

Speaker 329:46

Yeah.

Speaker 329:48

Yeah.

Presenter29:52

It is considered one of the great contests of the boxing world and obviously you won, I mean, which is great. But what are your memories of the build up to that day and of the fight itself?

Anthony Joshua30:03

There was a lot of respect. He's a good guy.

Presenter30:05

You had trained with him. You'd been to his training camp.

Anthony Joshua30:06

Exactly. He invited me into his training camp. Obviously I had to go there to help him get ready for a fight, so there's a bit of like pushing and shoving, punching, but there's respect there. It was my first insight to see how a world champion conducts themselves in a training camp, how professional he was, how he approached his fight.

Anthony Joshua30:24

I call them my enemies, my opponents. Of course, I still call them my enemies. A lot of my other enemies were in the same training camp. He used to invite maybe 15 other heavyweights to come and help him get ready. So I would be able to watch them sparring him. In 2014, I had the opportunity to train. 17 we thought. So when I got the opportunity to fight him, we was already quite familiar, but he thought due to his experience and my lack of experience, he would beat me because I had only had 18 fights at the time, which is relatively

Anthony Joshua30:58

It's not it's not nah, it's not much at all. So he knew in his mind, I will beat this guy because I know so much more than him. But it was the passing of the guard at the time.

Presenter31:00

Hmm.

Anthony Joshua31:09

And I remember driving to Wembley Stadium. You know, I lived in Golders Green. So like I'm driving down the North Circular and I'm like, it's loads of traffic and I'm like, oh, that that's my uncle I want oh uncle like let's go like I'm seeing all my friends on the North Circle.

Presenter31:23

So everyone's everyone's on their way to see you.

Anthony Joshua31:26

Everyone's on the'cause I fight last year.

Anthony Joshua31:28

So I don't have to get there at the start. So I get there around when people want to watch the last three fights. I was on the North Circuit with those type of people. So I'm seeing all my family and friends on the North Circus just like

Presenter31:41

Who's causing all this traffic?

Anthony Joshua31:43

Yeah, I'm seeing all my friends and family on the way.

Presenter31:44

Uh

Anthony Joshua31:46

It was a tough fight.

Presenter31:48

You know, the home crowd, them chanting your name. They're like, what was that like for you walking out to that wave of the world?

Anthony Joshua31:50

It's a lot, yeah, it's a lot.

Anthony Joshua31:54

That wave of valuable lesson. Um at the Olympics I tried to shut the noise down'cause I was new. I was like, Alright, focus, don't get caught up in the crowd.

Anthony Joshua32:05

But with the Klitschko fight now, I learnt that energy, that 90,000 people where they're screaming, that's so much energy directed at me and directed at the ring that it's impossible to shut it out. So the best thing I can do is embrace it. Just welcome it and ride the wave. Smile. Put your fist up to people. Own the moment. You know, you're walking out of the tunnel and you can see everyone's flashlights on their phone. And it's not only like one, two floors up. You're talking about five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten floors up because it's in a big stadium.

Anthony Joshua32:40

Then they put me on this stage where I go high into the sky and all the fire goes up and I'm standing in the sky and I can just see Vladimir Klitschko looking at me, standing there, thinking

Presenter32:50

Okay.

Anthony Joshua32:51

I'm gonna knock this kid out. So, first spell goes, the fight starts.

Anthony Joshua32:57

A few rounds later I put him down, he puts me down and the fight is really good, obviously, for his fans and my fans. They're both getting

Anthony Joshua33:07

I'm having my success, he's having his success and uh

Anthony Joshua33:11

I just got there in the end in the 11th round I took him out.

Presenter33:14

Do you keep in touch?

Anthony Joshua33:15

Yeah, I do. I check in with him. It's causing the respect I have for him.

Presenter33:18

You know, there's also the kind of industry aspect, which is a really interesting one, because you generate a huge amount of money in this very lucrative industry. But for people who aren't in the ring doing the hard work and taking all the risks, I wonder how you square that, how that sits with you?

Anthony Joshua33:32

They get a percent. Who the business people are the people?

Presenter33:35

Yeah, they get a lot they get a big percentage considering they're not the ones

Anthony Joshua33:36

Which considering they're not the ones they're not the ones doing the final

Presenter33:38

Who wants to do the fighting?

Anthony Joshua33:40

Yeah, everyone eats

Anthony Joshua33:42

That's how we say everybody eats. I always say that it's an old street saying is that if your soldiers starve, sooner or later they'll come and conquer you. So I always make sure that everybody eats. But as at the same time, no one can get too greedy as well. I shouldn't either. I shouldn't take fights based on money. You should always have a calculated head on what you're doing. So

Anthony Joshua34:01

Yeah, everybody eats, but also no one should get too greedy. It's such a shame because sports is a small window and we're forgotten about so quickly. I know, like.

Anthony Joshua34:10

I'm not going to be in a hot seat for all my life. So I have to make smart decisions while the iron's hot. And uh I really understand that. So sooner or later I'm going to fade off.

Anthony Joshua34:21

Someone else gonna be on the desert island beach. So while I'm on the desert island, I'm trying to hunt for treasure and make sure I leave with something.

Presenter34:29

Well, on that note, I think we'd better make sure you've got another disc while you're there. Your sixth choice today. What are we going to hear next and why?

Anthony Joshua34:33

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua34:36

The big boy Stormzy, South London's finest. This one is shut up. So this one for me was just like uh I was fighting a guy called Dylan White and um

Anthony Joshua34:46

And I was thinking, what song can I choose? Because I feel like Ring Walks are quite iconic in a way.

Presenter34:51

So this is the music that you walk out to?

Anthony Joshua34:53

Yeah, the music you choose, but I do want to kind of give the supporter something to remember. And then my friend was like, listen, call Stormzy and ask him if he'll do a ring walk for you. And I was thinking, nah, I don't like bothering people, he's probably too busy.

Anthony Joshua35:06

So we got in touch with him and he was like, Yeah, of course. And at the time, he had just made this shut up track.

Presenter35:11

So I was talking to someone who this week who was at that fight.

Anthony Joshua35:14

Yeah.

Presenter35:14

And he said he has never been in a room like it, especially when you walk out with Stormzy performing this. He said it was the atmosphere was electric.

Anthony Joshua35:21

Atmosphere was.

Anthony Joshua35:23

It was electric, so this was for the British title, so this is like British level, this isn't even world level.

Anthony Joshua35:28

the fight lived up to expectation like in round three

Anthony Joshua35:33

I think I hit him after the bell. His corners jumped in like they wanted to beat me up. So people from his family and friends have just stormed the ring. All of my family and friends. The security kind of yeah, it was just chaos.

Speaker 335:43

Could be.

Speaker 335:45

Uh

Speaker 335:46

Let's go!

Speaker 335:48

Man Chassis better than me. Tell my man shut up. Shut up. Mention my name in your tweets. Iruboy Shutter. Shut up. Better than me? Shut up. Shut up. Best in the scene. Tell my man, yo. Yo, come now, call me a backup dancer. On stage of the prince, I'm a backup dancer. If that makes me a backup dancer, I'll demand your bits. Demand your pics. Man, wanna chat about backup dancer. Big man like me with a beard, I'm a big man, like the f ⁇ and I f ⁇. Army comes everywhere I go.

Presenter36:16

Stormsy and shut up. So, Anthony Joshua, you've had many victories in the ring and some losses too along the way. How do you deal with those?

Anthony Joshua36:26

Winning a fight is great, of course.

Anthony Joshua36:29

But in a way I feel like that's what I'm supposed to do. Losing I don't like losing, but I'll always have a chance to come back.

Presenter36:35

You say you don't like losing, but people say, you know, that's when you find out who you really are, is when things don't work out, you know, when your your mettle is tested. How do you deal with those losses when they do come?

Anthony Joshua36:45

I've actually broken down when I've lost before. It's tough.

Anthony Joshua36:49

But you know what I searched.

Anthony Joshua36:50

I searched for for more. I know I can get better. I know I can move on from here. So I searched, I continued to search and I rebuilt, restructured. I kind of say like there's options.

Anthony Joshua37:02

Keep it the same.

Anthony Joshua37:03

Completely change or add to what you have.

Presenter37:06

Alright, we'll see your approach.

Anthony Joshua37:08

I add to what I have. I had a great time, I went to a dark room.

Anthony Joshua37:11

Which was like

Anthony Joshua37:13

You know, there was this opportunity. I kind of changed my approach where I was like, you know, I want to heal from the inside mentally. I want to kind of.

Anthony Joshua37:21

Let my body recover. I'm under a lot of pressure. And I went in on Monday and I came up Friday. A room probably this big with a bathroom.

Presenter37:30

Hang on, you went in on Monday and you came out on Friday. What is it? I'm imagining a flotation tank here. Am I.

Anthony Joshua37:35

I've been in one of them. Imagine that dark.

Anthony Joshua37:38

That dark wait, you know you can't see anything.

Presenter37:41

So you're in the dark for a week, a working week.

Anthony Joshua37:43

But what can we?

Anthony Joshua37:44

And going into that dark room gave me a bit of time where I could just switch off.

Presenter37:48

So you're in total darkness for five days.

Anthony Joshua37:50

Complete. And no no one to talk to.

Anthony Joshua37:53

It was good.

Presenter37:54

I'm imagining your mind takes you to places you wouldn't anticipate in that five days of total darkness.

Anthony Joshua38:00

One of the things was um I don't have enough meaningful conversations with my family.

Anthony Joshua38:07

I feel like what it is with me, I've got this mindset where I'm a warrior.

Anthony Joshua38:10

I go out to conquer.

Anthony Joshua38:13

and I bring harvest back to my family. I'm not too talkative on the phone. It's kind of like hi and by and so on and so forth. But someone said something to me once, one of my coaches from the Finchie Boxing Gym and said, Josh, look,

Anthony Joshua38:28

You get all these kids boxing gloves, you get them the van. He goes, You know what they want from you the most? I was like, What what more do they want? Blood, yeah, I get them everything He said, Nah, nah, nah He goes, They just want your time. They just want to spend time with you and that hit me.

Anthony Joshua38:43

And when I was in the dark room, there was that feeling where I was like

Anthony Joshua38:47

I just need to have a bit more meaningful conversations, a bit more time that I could spend with my mum, my dad, my auntie, uncle, sister. How are you?

Anthony Joshua38:56

Not what's going on, just like, how are you feeling? Is there anything that I can do? Shall we spend some time? Let's just go on a walk and catch up.

Anthony Joshua39:05

It just kinda brought home what's important.

Presenter39:08

And as you said before, it's all about family for you. And you have a young son, JJ, who's eight, I think.

Anthony Joshua39:12

It is.

Anthony Joshua39:14

Yeah, he's eight now. Where's the time gone?

Presenter39:16

Oh, I know. How much does he understand about what you do for a living?

Anthony Joshua39:19

He's cool, he doesn't really he he gets it, but he's not as I said, General Isa always kept boxing out. Like, I'm your dad, I'm not the boxer. Mum, I'm your son, I'm not the boxer. Sis I'm your brother, I'm not the boxer. So I've always kept it separate. So he gets that I fight, but he knows that I'm just dad.

Speaker 139:29

Uh

Presenter39:29

Mother

Speaker 139:29

Uh

Presenter39:38

Uh

Anthony Joshua39:38

So

Presenter39:38

So what would you like him to do for a living? I mean, how would you feel if he followed in your footsteps?

Anthony Joshua39:43

I don't think it's a wise decision.

Anthony Joshua39:45

But I would say don't compare yourself to anyone, do the best you can do.

Presenter39:49

Hmm.

Anthony Joshua39:49

Um, but if I was to choose for him, I would ask him to probably look at accountancy because I think it's good to understand numbers. So when you have that type of insight, you can now become entrepreneur and invest in businesses. I want him to focus on business.

Presenter40:05

Anthony, boxing is a global sport and many recent fights have taken place in Saudi Arabia, which obviously is a country with a controversial human rights record.

Anthony Joshua40:07

Yeah.

Presenter40:14

How does that sit with you? How do you kind of reconcile the taking part in events in countries like that?

Anthony Joshua40:20

Ah, I'm there for boxing.

Anthony Joshua40:23

I don't get involved in the politics.

Anthony Joshua40:25

You know, but if I see someone getting treated wrongly, if I see it with my own eyes, I you know, I always stand up for people.

Presenter40:31

But what if you know that it's happening, even if you're not seeing it with your own eyes?

Anthony Joshua40:35

I live under a rock, so what what is happening in Saudi Arabia?

Presenter40:40

The human rights issues, there's been journalists who've been imprisoned and murdered.

Anthony Joshua40:46

Yeah.

Presenter40:47

You can't be gay and you know, openly gay and Saudi.

Anthony Joshua40:48

You know pretty good.

Anthony Joshua40:50

It's a good conversation to have is how can I help?

Anthony Joshua40:55

You know, that's the question I need to ask is how can I help?

Anthony Joshua41:00

And then I go about doing what I can do.

Anthony Joshua41:03

'Cause it's not something that's been on the forefront of my mind.

Anthony Joshua41:06

But now we're speaking about it, the question is how can I help and is there a way I can help?

Presenter41:11

It's a big conversation in sport, and people who make that other side of the argument would say that actually to.

Presenter41:19

to not participate in events in that country or to, you know, not

Anthony Joshua41:22

Yes, that's that's difficult. That's like telling a teacher from the UK don't go out there and teach because

Anthony Joshua41:29

There's human rights, and it's like I it's a it's it's that's a conversation to have. That's like where you have an open discussion where it's like it's difficult, but

Anthony Joshua41:37

How can I help away from so it doesn't affect my career and my passion? It's a great opportunity.

Anthony Joshua41:42

And I understand that we're discussing human rights, but I don't want to let it get in the way of my career as well.

Anthony Joshua41:48

So that's it's yeah, that's a question. How can I help without it affecting my career?

Anthony Joshua41:54

You know. But I I'm open to discussions, always.

Presenter41:58

Alright, we've got to make room for the music, and this is your penultimate disc, Anthony Joshua. Number seven, what are we going to hear?

Anthony Joshua42:05

Oh well, number seven.

Anthony Joshua42:08

The dawn. You know, I felt growing up is that I wanted to take that responsibility of um

Anthony Joshua42:19

leading the family to the promised land in a way.

Anthony Joshua42:22

And I always say the family because I mentioned earlier I grew up around family, dad had a big family, mum had a big family, I'm connected with all my family still.

Anthony Joshua42:32

And this song.

Anthony Joshua42:33

It's all about family.

Anthony Joshua42:36

Theme from the soundtrack The Godfather.

Presenter42:39

It's a different kind of family, obviously.

Anthony Joshua42:41

Yeah,

Presenter43:14

The love theme from the Godfather film soundtrack by Nino Rota.

Presenter43:18

Anthony Joshua, there's an irony in boxing because you have to be so disciplined, you have to look after yourself so carefully, and then you get in the ring and you put everything on the line. And it's it's quite ironic really. This sport is notoriously dangerous.

Anthony Joshua43:29

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua43:33

Mm-hmm.

Presenter43:33

How much do you worry about the risks? How much do you let yourself think about that?

Anthony Joshua43:38

Yeah, you do, naturally.

Anthony Joshua43:41

I was thinking about it the other day, someone asked me when am I retiring and I was like, in about two years.

Anthony Joshua43:46

But I was thinking to myself, as a fighter y you should say.

Anthony Joshua43:49

I don't even think about retiring. I don't think about my health. All I want to do is conquer.

Anthony Joshua43:54

That's the true warrior spirit. But naturally in your quiet moments, in your dark room, you have time to think and I do wonder and I say to myself, after all of this is said and done,

Anthony Joshua44:08

The one thing I would hope for the most is to keep my health intact.

Anthony Joshua44:12

Because it's

Anthony Joshua44:13

Your health day is the most important thing that you're putting on the line.

Presenter44:16

Do you talk to other fighters about it? Because I would imagine most people don't really understand how that feels, but they do.

Anthony Joshua44:22

None of us fighters talk about our health after.

Anthony Joshua44:25

You know, we can notice it in fighters when their health is deteriorating, but we never actually

Anthony Joshua44:30

talk about it amongst ourselves. All we focus on is winning.

Presenter44:33

Mm.

Anthony Joshua44:33

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua44:34

Yeah.

Presenter44:35

Have you thought about what you'd like your legacy as a boxer to be?

Anthony Joshua44:39

What I will do in the future when I finish is probably open I don't know if it's needed but maybe a care home for retired boxers if they have bad health.

Anthony Joshua44:47

So John Oliver, one of my amateur coaches, he's a lot older now, but he speaks to a lot of the old boxers and he's come from a generation where a lot of boxers that retired had bad health issues and were left just left alone and they suffer by themselves. So we've been speaking about opening up a care home. That will be part of my boxing legacy is that I gave something back to the sport that made me.

Presenter45:10

Yeah, that would be a lovely thing to do.

Anthony Joshua45:11

Yeah, definitely.

Presenter45:13

We've got another challenge for you before you get there though.

Anthony Joshua45:15

What we got.

Presenter45:15

Well, we're gonna cast you away to a desert island.

Anthony Joshua45:18

Let's go.

Presenter45:19

But how are you feeling about it? Well, how do you imagine yourself there? Total isolation. Are you good at fending for yourself? I mean, we've heard about the darkroom experience, so

Anthony Joshua45:28

Mm-hmm.

Presenter45:29

You know, you're not afraid of your own company, obviously.

Anthony Joshua45:31

And then training camp. So when you're preparing for a fight, a big part of it is isolation. So you go to a training camp, which means you isolate yourself from your family and friends, and they're supposed to leave you alone. And everything in your life is supposed to evolve around this preparation to reach in your higher self to get ready for battle and to be victorious. And being on a desert island, there is an element of preparing for battle, but there's an element of survival. And the second thing is being alone, being in isolation. So I think I'll be pretty comfortable.

Presenter46:03

And it's off.

Presenter46:05

So you've got the Spartan mindset that you're experienced with as well, which is that's going to help, presumably. And also you did mention earlier, I think, you've you had a bit of experience on building sites when you were young. So

Anthony Joshua46:09

Yeah.

Anthony Joshua46:15

Uh

Speaker 146:15

We were young's

Presenter46:16

I know you studied bricklaying for a bit. I'm wondering whether you'd be able to knock up a shelter. I don't know if there are going to be any bricks there, but you're defending for yourself.

Speaker 146:16

Uh

Anthony Joshua46:16

And you studied bricklaying for a bit and w

Anthony Joshua46:20

I don't know if there are going to be any bricks there, but you're defending for you.

Anthony Joshua46:23

Yeah, I'll do my best, that's for sure.

Presenter46:26

Well, one more disc before we send you there.

Anthony Joshua46:28

Okay.

Presenter46:29

What's it gonna be? Last one?

Anthony Joshua46:30

This song is Nicholas Brittel Agapay.

Anthony Joshua46:34

And

Anthony Joshua46:36

Between Adele Hometown Glory and this song

Anthony Joshua46:40

I think these make up the soundtracks for my life right now.

Presenter46:43

So are you listening to it a lot right now?

Anthony Joshua46:45

Yeah.

Presenter46:46

So what does that music do for your mindset?

Anthony Joshua46:48

It takes you to a place of um

Anthony Joshua46:50

Purpose, I would say, reason with myself: like, who am I? Where am I? Where am I going?

Anthony Joshua46:57

And that's why for me this song is more about

Anthony Joshua47:01

I could sit there alone in a garden.

Anthony Joshua47:06

For four or five hours, no phone and just look out into the sun, look out into nature and just contemplate my life with this on plane in the background. It just gives me a chance to meditate, I would say.

Presenter47:16

That's perfect for a desert island.

Anthony Joshua47:17

Perfect.

Presenter47:51

Nicholas Brittel and Agape. So, Anthony Joshua, I'm going to send you away to the desert island now. I'm giving you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to take with you. You can take one other book, your own choice. What's that going to be?

Anthony Joshua48:00

You can take one.

Anthony Joshua48:04

So I was thinking about this and as I'm stranded on the desert island I thought of taking a bear girl's book.

Presenter48:11

So a survival guide is what you're after.

Anthony Joshua48:12

Yeah, survival guide and uh I met Barry Gross.

Anthony Joshua48:17

I'd done a show with him once and I thought that his show might be fake, that they climb a mountain then go like go out and get McDonald's after and stay in a hotel, but I stayed out in the wilderness, I ate a maggot, I jumped in the sea and I questioned my life at some stages, but he's a really fun, fun guy and I think that'll be a book I'll take with me.

Presenter48:32

Stage

Presenter48:37

Oh, you're going to be fine on this island. I'm quite sure of it. You can also have a luxury item. What will that be?

Anthony Joshua48:43

I'll probably end up taking a punch bag.

Anthony Joshua48:46

It's working out, get my little workouts in the morning and stuff like that.

Presenter48:50

And finally, which one track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you rush to save from the waves first?

Anthony Joshua48:56

Nicolas Brito Agope.

Presenter48:58

And why?

Anthony Joshua49:00

It's the soundtrack to my life.

Presenter49:02

Anthony Joshua, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Anthony Joshua49:05

Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

Presenter49:22

Hello, it was lovely to chat to Anthony and I hope he's happy on his island with his punch bag.

Presenter49:27

There are more than 2,000 programmes in our archive which you can listen to. We've cast other boxes away to the island over the years, including Henry Cooper, George Foreman, Nicola Adams, and Frank Bruno. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or on our own Desert Island Disc's website. The studio manager for today's programme was Phil Lander, the production coordinator was Susie Roylance, the assistant producer was Tim Banno, and the producer was Sarah Taylor. Join me next time when my guest will be the forensic scientist, Professor Patricia Wilcher.

Speaker 150:27

Hello, I'm India Ackerson, and this funny thing happened to me once. I was born, and so were you. And the thing is, from the moment egg met sperm, we've been shaped by our world in so many more ways than you think. And our series, Child, from BBC Radio 4, gets into that. The extraordinary life events of pregnancy, birth, and the first 12 months tell us a lot about ourselves, our society, and where we might be heading. The brain of a baby holds the secrets to the origins of human thought. Mothers undergo transformations we are only just comprehending. And the way attitudes to birth change affects every single one of us.

Presenter50:49

There's

Speaker 151:05

Listen on BBC Sounds.

Anthony Joshua51:09

From the boxing greats. We're very fragile beings, so we ought to be gentle with ourselves. To the ring's current superstars. I want to take their song and I just want to get the job done and walk out. Plus analysis and previews. Well, the whole build-up has been madness, and the fight was a little bit mad as well. Everything boxing every single week crammed into just one weekly podcast. I won my first national title at 16.

Presenter51:14

To the ring

Speaker 351:19

Plus analysis

Anthony Joshua51:34

My name was Bondo Bay the same I was 20. Live Live Boxing with me, Steve Bunts. Job done. What's next? With new episodes every week. Listen on BBC Sounds.