Two days before he was scheduled to try to defend his heavyweight titles against the undefeated Oleksandr Usyk, Anthony Joshua sat at a news conference on Thursday in London, his hat, headphones and even water bottles positioned to make sponsor logos visible to the cameras.
A long list of companies has invested in Joshua, the 31-year-old British boxing star: Under Armour, his apparel provider; Beats by Dre, the headphones maker; Matchroom Boxing, the promoter with which Joshua signed a lifetime contract this week. And Joshua, who is 24-1 with 22 knockouts, spoke as though Saturday’s bout against Usyk, an undefeated 34-year-old from Ukraine, was not just a contest but also an economic stimulus package.