Anthony Joshua earned £15,000 for debut as Brit closes in on £100million pay-day

Joshua earned just £15,000 for his professional debut against Emanuele Leo at Wembley Stadium, but is expected to earn over 6600 times more for his expected £100 million payday when he rematches Usyk this summer

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Anthony Joshua gets a free burger from McDonald’s

Anthony Joshua earned just £15,000 for his debut against Emanuele Leo but could now earn £100million for his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk.

The British star has reigned as two-time heavyweight champion during his career where he has fought some of the division’s leading fighters including Wladimir Klitschko and Dillian Whyte. After winning gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Joshua signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing to make his first outing in professional ranks.

Joshua earned around 6000 times less for his debut victory over Emnauele Leo than he will earn for his upcoming sequel with Usyk this summer. ‘AJ’ recorded a trademark booming KO to begin his blossoming career on the undercard of Lee Selby’s meeting with Ryan Walsh.

However there were many more lucrative nights to come for Joshua who was just taking his first steps towards conquering the division and becoming one of the sport’s biggest stars. Joshua’s first big opportunity came against domestic rival Whyte when he won the British and Commonwealth titles while earning £3m.

Shortly afterwards Joshua earned £5m for his opening night of world glory where he was first crowned champion with victory over Charles Martin. He later earned a combined £15m for title defences against Eric Molina and Dominic Brezeale before facing Wladmir Klitschko in the biggest night of his career.

The pair sold out Wembley Stadium while he earned an expected £15m for unifying the blue-ribband division in an epic win. Joshua then earned £50m from three fights against Joseph Parker, Alexander Povetkin and Carlos Takam before his most lucrative paydays to date came.

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Despite losing to Andy Ruiz Jr on his America debut, Joshua earned a career-high payday of £25m for his New York upset. He later topped his record purse earning an incredible £65m for avenging his defeat to Ruiz Jr in Saudi Arabia.

Although earning £15m for his failed title defence against Usyk, Joshua can count himself hard done by missing out on a guaranteed £100m payday against British rival Tyson Fury for the undisputed titles. However Joshua could now regain his mega-money fight but with a new opponent as he looks to secure revenge against the tricky Ukrainian this summer.

Joshua will travel to the Middle East seeking redemption for the second time in his career in a fight which he is expected to pocket a mega £100m even without the belts in his corner. If he is to prevail and restore his unified champion status, Joshua could face the possibility of rescuing his bumper showdown against Fury later in the year.

The 32-year-old has admitted that the financial rewards available from boxing is one of his key motivators as he approaches the prime years of his career. “It’s subject to change but if i am honest right now it is about the money,” Joshua said during a Q&A with the Oxford Union. “In sport it is more passion because I did it for a long time for free and I still train for months and months for free.

“At the end of each there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but outside of boxing I want to be financially stable. Our generation starts to set up a lot of businesses but once I have achieved that we can give back to communities as well. That is where I get the drive to generate income.”