Anthony Joshua reveals he offered hashish when he was homeless at 17

Anthony Joshua has today revealed that he sold cannabis in his teens as a way to make money when he was homeless.

The heavyweight champion, who is one of the UK’s most successful sports stars, shared his story of fending for himself on the streets of Watford at 17-years-old in an interview with Desert Island Discs.

After his mother moved from the estate they lived on in Watford further into London without him, Joshua registered as homeless, began living in a hostel and had to find a way to make money.

Joshua, 34, said: ‘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. I declared myself homeless, I moved into a hostel so I was living on my own completely at the age of 17.

‘You’ve got to fend for yourself, you’ve got to make money. At that time I was smoking weed and then someone asks you “where did you get that weed from?” and next minute you know the person that gets weed and know you can make a profit on it. 

Anthony Joshua, 34, shared his story of fending for himself on the streets of Watford at 17-years-old in an interview with Desert Island Discs

‘Long story short, my friends mum used to smoke weed, her 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, and then we just used to sell it in the estate.’

Joshua also spoke about the fighting that came along with that lifestyle and how he is ‘really glad’ that he found boxing because it ‘changed him a lot’.

He said: ‘The fighting stuff, that was just being outside. If you’re outside on a Saturday night past 12am you’re more than likely going to get into trouble if you’re in the wrong place for too long, if you’re amongst the wrong type of people. 

‘Someone will look at you wrong, “oi what you looking at?”, you know what I mean? That type of stuff. So I just used to fight now and again, not always as I said I wasn’t always troublesome but I’m really glad that I found boxing because it changed me a lot.’

Anthony Joshua reacts after winning his fight against Francis Ngannou in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 9, 2024

Joshua was eventually banned from Watford Town Centre for fighting, was made to wear an ankle monitor by the police and had to move in with his mother in London.

It was around this time that he grew closer with his cousin Ben, who was already a boxer, and he suggested Joshua join him at Finchley Amateur Boxing Club.

He said: ‘The thing I loved that there is a community aspect. I was meeting people from different backgrounds, I’m talking to them, they’re talking to me. They’re telling me “Oi, watch this guy called Mike Tyson” or “Watch this guy called Mohammed Ali”. I didn’t know who these people were before really. I started watching them on YouTube and was like “These guys are inspirational”.’

Joshua started watching Mike Tyson’s training regime on YouTube and followed it.

‘If he can do it, then I can do it. If I can run at 3am in the morning, I have that passion and 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 gym. I started reading because I heard that a lot of boxers used to read when I was in training camp. 

‘Certain people were like, “You stopped smoking? You stopped doing this, you stopped doing that?”, and I was like “Yeah I can see this boxing thing could work if I stick to it”. This is at the age of like 18 or 19. 

‘I stuck with it and three years later I was an Olympic champion.’