Anthony Joshua has revealed his plans to join the WWE – to follow in his hero Muhammad Ali’s footsteps.
The Nigeria-British boxer is the current IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight champion after his latest fight against Kubrat Pulev.
He defended his belts after a gritty contest with the hard-as-nails Bulgarian.
And there are plans afoot for AJ to take on Tyson Fury in what promises to be one of the biggest British boxing clashes in years.
Almost every heavyweight wants to take Joshua on in the ring as he remains one of the most famous boxers in the world.
But the Watford-born star has already set his sights on where he wants to be when he hangs his gloves up.
“I’m gonna do WWE because that’s what Muhammad Ali done,” Joshua said. “So I’m gonna do WWE.”
Ali is renowned as one of, if not, the best boxers of all time, combining a mesmeric ability with an unmatched charisma that made him a worldwide star.
Naturally, his gift of the gab had the WWE calling and he famously had a confrontation Gorilla Monsoon, when the franchise was known as the World Wrestling Federation in 1976.
Later in the same month, Ali and Japanese wrestling legend Antonio Inoki took on one another at The War of the Worlds in Tokyo.
But his most famous appearance came when he was not even billed as a fighter.
At Wrestlemania 1 in 1985, Ali was a special guest referee for the main event which saw Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff.
The Greatest is not the only boxer to put the gloves away and enter the wrestling ring, with Mike Tyson also famously playing a role.
And AJ’s rival Fury has also made an appearance as recently as 2019 when the Gypsy King had a clash for WWE in 2019 as part of the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia