‘I bought paid peanuts to battle Anthony Joshua, that is what I splurged my money on’

Anthony Joshua’s former opponent, Dorian Darch, has revealed that he earned just £5,000 for his bout with the formidable heavyweight.

The 40-year-old from Aberdare faced off against AJ in February 2014 at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, long before Joshua had established his reputation in the boxing ring. It was Joshua’s fourth professional fight overall, entering the event on the back of a three-fight winning streak following TKOs over Emanuele Leo, Paul Butlin and Hrvoje Kisicek.

At the time, Darch was far more experienced in the ring, boasting a respectable record of 7-2 and prepared to go six rounds with his younger adversary. However, the match didn’t quite pan out as the Welshman had hoped, with Joshua dominating the first round and staggering Darch with a solid right just before the bell rang.

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An early right hand in the second round, coupled with a few glancing left hooks for good measure, left Darch unsteady before referee Terry O’Connor called off the bout – AJ securing his fourth consecutive TKO victory. While AJ has since made enormous sums from his heavyweight boxing matches, most notably earning a reported £53million ($75m) for his 2022 rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, Darch revealed that his earnings were paltry when he fought Joshua a decade ago.

Darch candidly explained: “I’m trying to think who I was with at the time, I think I was with Sammy Simms, he was my manager at the time. He offered me the fight and, as you know, I’d lost to Ian Lewison, so I knew my career wasn’t going anywhere,” reports the Mirror.

“So Sammy Simms phoned me up and said, ‘been offered the AJ fight if you want it? ‘ I said, ‘how much? ‘, and he said ‘five grand’, so that’s all I had for it was five grand because it was a long time ago, was it 2014/2015 or something like that? So, I just took the fight, the five grand paid for a nice holiday and the rest is history.”

Looking back on the bout, Darch said: “The first round, I done alright, I thought. If you watch the fight back, I was making him miss. When he catches you once you stay caught, if you know what I mean. He caught me with a right hand towards the end of the first round, in the final seconds, then I was like a pinball in the corner ’til the bell rung.

“So, I made it into the second then took a big left hook and it just took me out, my legs had gone, my hands had dropped, and thankfully the ref jumped in then before he had a chance to drop me or hit me again.” He explained: “I’m just honest; my legs were gone.”

Despite Darch not having fought since 2020 and holding a record of 12-12-1, Joshua has made a name for himself in the boxing world. Remarkably active, he secured the WBC heavyweight title by defeating Denis Bakhtov just eight months after his bout with Darch, before claiming the Commonwealth and British heavyweight titles the following year.

In 2016, he added the IBF heavyweight title to his collection with a second-round knockout of Charles Martin at London’s O2. Joshua then won the WBA (Super) and IBO belts by defeating Wladimir Klitschko in 2017. A victory over Joseph Parker in 2018 saw him add the WBO title to his growing list of achievements, before losing them all to Andy Ruiz Jr the next year.

As it stands, AJ boasts an impressive 28-3 record overall, with his only other two losses coming from Usyk, who is the most recent boxer to achieve undisputed greatness in the heavyweight division thanks to his split-decision win over Tyson Fury in May.

Now aged 34 and aiming for another shot at heavyweight glory, Joshua is set to face Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on September 21 for the IBF heavyweight championship. DDD, with a record of 21-2, claimed the vacant title in June following an eighth-round TKO over Filip Hrgovic and will be hoping to retain his title when the fight concludes.