Joshua hopes that his eight-year-old son, JJ, will seek a career outside of the ring so that he won’t be targeted.
Anthony Joshua will have a conversation with his little kid when the moment is right.
The same talk that youngsters reared in the shadowy corners of boxing gyms had with scared battling dads before him. Joshua, who faces Francis Ngannou, the former UFC champion, tonight in Saudi Arabia, has won the heavyweight title twice and accumulated enough wealth to sustain his family for many decades.
However, he will beg his football-mad son JJ, who will be nine this year, to see past that fame and money and acknowledge the suffering and sacrifice that a professional wrestling career has caused. Additionally, Joshua aims to achieve where others including as Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn failed by preventing his kid from stepping past the ropes.
“I would never let him box. I am not interested in him boxing,” he said. “You have to be so strong mentally to be a boxer. I’m not saying he won’t be mentally strong but I would not want to put him through that mental pressure. I am sure he could fight, he will definitely have the genes to do it, but the mental side – that goes unspoken about – I would not want him to go through that.
“Imagine ‘Anthony Joshua’s son is boxing’; there would be a target on his back straight away. It will be JJ’s choice but I will advise him he could probably do something completely different and still enjoy life – but he still has to work hard!” Former world champions Eubank and Benn implored their sons not to follow in their footsteps but were ultimately forced to relent.
Neither has reached their dads’ heady heights and Conor Benn’s reputation was tarnished when he failed a drugs test before his scheduled fight with Chris Eubank Jr in 2022. And Joshua doesn’t want to watch his son struggle to live up to the family name”This job is not fun. I enjoy showcasing my skills but to get to that point is not fun,” he added. “It’s a lot of sacrifice, a lot of passion and dedication. It takes a lot and it takes a lot out of you.
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