Anthony Joshua MBE is a British heavyweight boxer, Olympic gold medallist and two-time former unified world heavyweight champion. Anthony was born in 1989 and grew up in Watford. When he was 11, he moved with his mother to Nigeria, her home country, and attended a boarding school there for several months. When the family returned to Watford, Anthony took part in football and athletics at school, although he recalls that he didn’t enjoy sport in the freezing winter conditions. After school he briefly studied music technology, and worked as a bricklayer, but mostly drifted. When he found himself banned from Watford town centre, he moved to Edgware and started going to the gym. His cousin Ben Ileyemi, a keen boxer, invited him to his local boxing gym in Finchley. Anthony, then aged 18, and with no boxing experience, decided to enter the ring himself. Within five years, he won a gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics. He turned professional in 2013 and has become one of the most high-profile boxers in the world. Anthony lives in London. DISC ONE: Waiting in Vain - Bob Marley & The Wailers DISC TWO: Hometown Glory - Adele DISC THREE: Water No Get Enemy - Fela Kuti DISC FOUR: Eye of the Tiger - Survivor DISC FIVE: One More Chance Freestyle - Skrapz DISC SIX: Shut Up - Stormzy DISC SEVEN: The Godfather Pt. I: Love Theme From "The Godfather" - Nino Rota DISC EIGHT: Agape - Nicholas Britell BOOK CHOICE: A Bear Grylls survival book LUXURY ITEM: A punchbag CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Agape - Nicholas Britell Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor
BBC sounds music Radio podcasts 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 cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
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 bound 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.
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.
Anthony Joshua, welcome to Desert island Discs.
Thank you for having me today.
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.