As meticulous as unified heavyweight world titleholder Anthony Joshua is about his preparation for fights, he is similar when it comes to handling the business of his events, which are among the biggest in boxing.
Joshua’s inner circle — which includes trainer and adviser Robert McCracken, promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing and Freddie Cunningham, who handles his numerous commercial and sponsorship deals — has his trust and has been with him virtually since the day he turned professional after winning the super heavyweight gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in front of the home crowd in London. But Joshua remains the decision-maker when it comes to his career in terms of boxing and business.
Most fighters don’t run their own business, instead relying on promoters and managers for almost everything. There are certainly exceptions, such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., who often touted the fact that he was his own boss when he was fighting. Joshua, too, is his own boss, but allows his people to handle their areas of expertise before making the final call himself.
“I don’t want [fighters] designing posters. I don’t want them telling me how to market an event. I don’t want them telling me what to say at press conferences. But Anthony doesn’t do that,” Hearn said. “Anthony says, ‘I believe in you as the best promoter out there; you’re my promoter. Rob, you’re the best trainer in the world; you’re my trainer. Freddie, you handle all my media and commercial [deals].’ But every decision comes down to him, really.”
There are a lot of decisions to make when the fights are as big as Joshua’s. Besides numerous sponsor and endorsement deals, he is boxing’s biggest ticket seller. His fights regularly draw sellout crowds — between 75,000 and 90,000 at major stadiums in the United Kingdom, depending upon the venue — and his events typically generate more than 1 million buys on pay-per-view there. But Joshua, a mega star in the U.K. with designs on increasing his global profile, gave his team the go-ahead to plan his next fight away from the comforts of home for the first time.
Joshua has already crossed the pond for his United States debut. He finished his training camp in Miami and will make his seventh title defense against contender Andy Ruiz Jr. on Saturday (DAZN, 9 p.m. ET) at Madison Square Garden in New York, where a flock of Brits is expected to pack the famed arena and make Joshua feel at home anyway.
Joshua said he has put his trust in the team he has surrounded himself with but knows he is the boss in the end.
“I’m only a product of the people I have got around me,” Joshua said. “I always pride myself for having partnerships with people, and me and Eddie have a great partnership. We talk and Eddie does what’s right for my career as far as guide me.”
So far, so good. Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs), 29, won a title in 2016 by knocking out Charles Martin and has made six defenses, including unifying three belts and knocking out former longtime unified champion Wladimir Klitschko in the 10th round of the 2017 ESPN fight of the year.
“I said I wanted [the title fight], Eddie made it happen,” he said. “Klitschko fight, [Joseph] Parker fight, [Alexander] Povetkin. That’s the partnership we have. But at the same time Eddie wants me to fight [top opponents]. I can’t expect to be called the unified champion of the world by fighting [lesser foes]. I have to fight the best in the world, and Eddie is proud of that. And that’s the partnership that we have.”
Joshua is making big money. Besides millions from his endorsements, including deals with apparel, sports drinks and after-shave companies, he is making no less than $20 million per fight, Hearn said.
Joshua’s business also extends to his 258 Management agency, which he founded in 2018 and represents a handful of boxers, including promising light heavyweight Joshua Buatsi and junior middleweight Souleymane Cissokho, who are on Saturday’s undercard.
Hearn, who has grown close to Joshua, said their business relationship has been straightforward and relatively easy. Matchroom Boxing fighters who fight on pay-per-view — Joshua-Ruiz will be on pay-per-view in the U.K., albeit in the wee hours of Sunday morning — own their shows, and Matchroom takes a percentage of the profits. In the case of a Joshua fight, the split is typically about 85-15 in Joshua’s favor, Hearn said.
“When you’re a pay-per-view fighter, we will say here is the revenue. We will agree on the purse for the opponent, [budget] for the undercard,” Hearn said. “We know the other costs: venue, hotel, flights, sanction fees, drug testing, etc., etc. Now we’ve done [several pay-per-view] fights together so we know the money to the dime virtually. And all the revenue — which is the gate, pay-per-view, international TV, sponsorships — the only variable really is the pay-per-view. And whatever the net profit of the show is is all yours, and we take our percentage.
“When the fight is finished, [Joshua] will receive a complete detailed analysis of every invoice, every cost. He has the right to audit. He has his lawyer, his accountant, and they’ll look at all the numbers. He knows, having done this model for seven or eight fights, what the numbers should be. If there’s one that stands out, he might say to me, how come that’s so high?”
Last year Joshua finished a multifight deal with Showtime that paid him additional millions. The fight with Ruiz (32-1, 21 KOs), 29, who got the fight a month ago when original opponent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller failed four drug tests, will be Joshua’s second one-off fight with DAZN, which is also adding millions to Joshua’s bottom line. They are in negotiations for a long-term deal, both sides told ESPN.
If Hearn is the one who puts into motion Joshua’s wishes, it is McCracken who wields the most influence behind the scenes. Besides being Joshua’s trainer, there isn’t a contract or deal that is finalized without his stamp of approval.
They met about a decade ago when Joshua joined the Great Britain Olympic program, for which McCracken coached.
They struck up a close relationship that began with McCracken, a former middleweight contender who boxed from 1991 to 2001, teaching Joshua about life inside the ropes. That expanded to the business side of boxing after Joshua turned pro.
“He’s not trying to be in the limelight,” Joshua said of McCracken. “He’s been a fighter himself. Not many trainers today have actually been fighters, so he has that experience and he hasn’t guided me wrong so far in 22 fights.”
McCracken learned from his legendary former manager, the late Hall of Famer Mickey Duff, and passed his knowledge on to Joshua as he also did with former super middleweight titlist Carl Froch, who did major pay-per-views with Hearn as his promoter.
“Mickey Duff was my manager for the first three or four years as a professional, so I would go and meet with him at an Italian restaurant. He’d explain to me how things work, how deals were done,” said McCracken, who was self-managed later in his career. “I had my coaches when I turned professional, Pat and Tom Lynch, very wealthy people. They educated me about money and making decisions and how the finances work. As you go on, you learn the game.”
McCracken is largely responsible for approving Joshua’s opponents but is also very involved in the business.
“He has confidence in me and he’ll ask me for advice, but he’s at the point where he gets [the business]. He has good advice from the lawyers and financial people, but he always comes to me and asks for advice and we’ll look at the contracts and he’s happy for me to go through the last contract before he signs it,” McCracken said.
Making the decision to come to the U.S. was a big one for Joshua, who relied on Hearn and McCracken before making the final call. Joshua had hoped to meet Deontay Wilder for the undisputed title this past spring at Wembley Stadium in London, but the deal didn’t work out. A potential rematch with countryman Dillian Whyte also fell apart, at which point coming to America became an option, especially because DAZN wanted him to fight here in order for it to be live on a Saturday night. When he fights in the U.K, it is televised at about 5 p.m. ET, when the U.S. audience is much smaller.
Hearn said: “We couldn’t get the opponent we wanted for a fight in the U.K., Wilder or Whyte, so I said to him, ‘I don’t want to keep going back to the U.K. fans continuously. You’re a world champion, not a British champion. I think it’s important for you to fight in America.’ And I think it sends out a good message to people like Deontay Wilder to say, well, we’re here. There’s an example of something he probably wouldn’t have been done without our input. But if he would have said he didn’t want to box in America, we wouldn’t have come here.”
Joshua ultimately took Hearn’s advice and had warmed to the idea of fighting in the U.S. back in December after attending Canelo Alvarez’s bout at Madison Square Garden and feeling the electricity of the night.
“We’ve taken our time to get to this point, and now it’s time to fight in the States and show everyone what I am made of in the flesh,” Joshua said. “Coming to America is a massive part of the bigger picture. … The opportunity came to fight in the USA at the right time, so it’s another opportunity that just presented itself. And as soon as it came up, we took the opportunity. I didn’t want to turn my back on the U.K. fans. I wanted to let them know that I’m stopping off in the States.”
When Joshua signed off on fighting in the U.S., he looked to McCracken as always.
“This was the time to come to the States, fight a live opponent in Ruiz, a real contender, and show what you can do to the America audience,” McCracken said. “Ultimately, AJ makes the final decision. Fortunately for me, he’ll always ask me my advice and I’ll always give it, but the final decision is his. And up to now, we’ve made the right decisions.”