Anthony Joshua will increase his already substantial net worth by a whopping £33million after he rematches Oleksandr Usyk tonight.
Joshua, 32, looks to become one of the few three-time heavyweight champions in boxing history winning his belts back in Jeddah against Usyk. 'AJ' has been on a collision course to rematch to the Ukrainian ever since losing his titles to him last September. The Brit will increase his net worth, which currently sits at around £115m, to close to £150m after pocketing a huge payday for the rematch.
Not all of the heavyweight's earning have come from his fights, with Joshua owning two companies in Spartan Promotions and 258 MGT. Figures from the end of the 2021 financial year showed that Joshua's promotional company made a profit of £13.4m after a turnover of £15.6m, which was considerably less than the year before.
Spartan Promotions turned over £63.9m for the February 2020 financial year and made a gross profit of £57.9million. That included Joshua's fights with Andy Ruiz Jr in his US debut and their rematch in Saudi Arabia, of which he pocketed a huge £66million payday for. Despite losing to Ruiz at Madison Square Garden, Joshua earned £25million for the fight which at the time was his career-highest purse.
Joshua admitted that once he pockets a £100million payday, it would be hard not think about becoming a billionaire from boxing. "When I first started, the aim was to become a multimillionaire," he told GQ magazine five years ago. "But now there are ordinary people, grandmas and granddads, who are worth millions just because of property prices. So the new school of thought is that I need to be a billionaire.
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"Being a millionaire is good, but you have to set your sights higher. If I'm making £10 million from my next fight, my next target has to be making ten times that and if I get to £100m-150m, why not go for the billion? I know self-made billionaires. It's hard, but it's possible.”
Joshua's best chance of taking home a £100million payday came when he was booked to fight longtime rival Tyson Fury in an undisputed heavyweight title fight last year. The domestic rivals were supposed to meet in Saudi Arabia with Fury labelling it "the biggest sporting event ever to grace the planet earth", but the fight was scratched after the WBC ruled in favour of Fury's trilogy with Deontay Wilder. A win against Usyk could be enough for Joshua to lure Fury out of retirement and reschedule the undisputed clash.
