Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, the two-time former unified world heavyweight champion expressed a preference for his son, Joseph Joshua (known as JJ), to become an accountant. However, he emphasized that he wants JJ to chart his own path in life.
During the interview with host Lauren Laverne, Joshua also recounted his troubled teenage years in Watford, his run-ins with the police for fighting, and experiencing homelessness at age 17. He reflected on how discovering boxing came at a crucial time in his life.
He told Desert Island Discs: “I’d usually sit outside the estate and just have a cigarette. Then I started getting in trouble… I just wanted to make money, that was my goal,” he told the programme. “I was constantly getting in trouble.”
Joshua first entered the ring aged 18 when his cousin suggested he take up the sport, which he said became helpful to “channel my energy”.
Speaking to Desert Island Discs, Joshua revealed that his views about his son’s future had not changed. He said he would tell JJ to “do the best you can do”, when advising him about what he wanted to be when he was older.
“If I was to choose [a career] for him, I would ask him to probably look at accountancy because I think it’s good to understand numbers,” he said.
But what about his own future? Is retirement on the horizon? Not yet, according to Joshua. While he has no immediate plans to retire, he revealed that when he eventually steps away from the sport, he hopes to establish a care home for retired boxers who are in poor health.
“That would be part of my boxing legacy, that I gave something back to the sport that made me,” he said. “I know I’m not going to be in the hot-seat for all my life, so I have to make smart decisions while the iron’s hot.”
