Anthony Joshua was a ‘tall, rapid’ winger who may have been a professional footballer instead of fighting Tyson Fury for all the belts

Anthony Joshua is about to take part in quite possibly the biggest fight in the history of boxing.

That's not hyperbole. In Joshua and Tyson Fury, theses are two British heavyweights clashing for the first time, in their primes, for all the heavyweight titles to crown one undisputed champion. Truly history making stuff.

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And yet, once upon a time, AJ told me he wished he’d pursued a career as a footballer instead. “It would have been much easier,” he explained in reference to the gruelling regime required to be a champion.

Born in Watford, Joshua spent his formative years playing the beautiful game before finally taking boxing up aged 18 in 2007.

Attending Kings Langley school in Hertfordshire, he eventually made his way to the local semi-professional youth teams, including St Albans City’s Under 18 team.

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Speaking to a teammate of Joshua’s, who played with him briefly and declined to be named, a different picture of Joshua than one you see today was painted.

“I remember him turning up for about three training sessions under [coach] Richard Smith at the time. He was taller than everyone else, but skinny," he recalled.

"He was really athletic and quick, definitely rapid. Skill wise, he wasn’t amazing but he was decent. He could go at people."

Joshua has obviously grown to become a 6ft 6in monster of a man, who weighed 17st 2lbs, for his showdown with Pulev last December.

The WBA, WBO, IBO and IBF heavyweight champion certainly was pacey, too.

Before he packed on muscle, he set the 100m record at his secondary school, running it in 11.6 seconds at 16 years old.

And he took that speed to the pitches of Power League in Watford with his friends where, in addition to his Billy Whizz attributes, understandably towered over most.

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Joshua told me his coaches actually wanted him to transition from a winger to a centre back as that would have given him a better chance of ‘making it’.

An athletic, 6ft 6in centre half with ball skills always has a chance to go far in today's game and, with proper positional coaching, he would have had a great platform to build from.

But as he bounced around a few different youth teams, his cousin suggested giving boxing a try.

At the time, commitment appeared to be a problem for Joshua and he found himself in trouble with the law on two notable occasions.

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The first saw him arrested for what he described as, ‘fighting and other crazy stuff.’

He was charged and held in Reading prison for two weeks.

“I’d been charged, so it’s what we call remand, so they’re holding you in a secure location so obviously you can’t have an influence on any of the case and you can’t go and see certain people."

By the time he got out and began considering his cousin's advice to follow him into boxing - not that he had designs on world domination at this point.

"When I got bail, that’s when I started learning how to box and lift weights," he added.

“Because I thought, ‘If I’m gonna do a long sentence and I’ve got these little idiot kids in the jail, then I’m gonna come in there and I’m gonna back myself.’

“So I started pumping weights, me and my cousin… I signed up to one of these hard man gyms," he said, explaining the strict routine his bail conditions had placed him in at 18 years old - he wore a tag and had to be home by 8pm every night - stood him in good stead.

“And I think that’s what helped me with my boxing. When I came off of tag, I was already in a position where I was ready to take off with boxing."

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But as he made strides towards the Team GB Olympic squad, he was caught by police with cannabis in his car in 2011.

He was charged with possession with intent to supply a class B drug and submitted a guilty plea, allowing him to escape with a non-custodial sentence of 100 hours of unpaid work and a 12-month community order.

It was a setback and an early lesson in bouncing back was learned - something he has needed to rely on in his professional career.

When Joshua talked about football perhaps being the easier path for him, he specifically referenced the training.

The grind of being a professional boxer and the application required for only one or two nights a year of action shouldn’t be understated.

And to go from a skinny, nimble teenage winger to heavyweight champion of the world by 26 is pretty remarkable, especially taking into account those early bumps in the road.

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Still, football was and always will be, his first passion. He still plays with his friends when he can, while the heavyweight champion of the world even features in the FIFA 21 game as a playable character.

That's certainly something he never envisaged.

"Even though I love football – this is my first passion – I never could imagine being in the game," he told Kylian Mbappe and Thierry Henry during a Zoom call to promote the game.

He may not have become the ball-playing centre-back his coach wanted him to, but his chosen path couldn't have worked out much better for him - and he has learned a lot en route to possibly his biggest ever payday.

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