title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Reports of the US Senate and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have described massive million-dollar bribes to officials of the government-backed Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company by the General Telephone and Electric Co. of New York in exchange for supply contracts. The officials of PLDT needed to be investigated for violations of foreign currency regulations and unearned income. However, different stakeholders were kept silent. As one PLDT official boasted "an exposé will only hurt the Palace." In the US and Japan, presidents have been driven out of office for similar misconduct.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) was one of the largest corporations in the Philippines before the declaration of martial law. It was owned and controlled by the Lopez family. After martial law was imposed, it became the prime target for takeover by the Marcos-Romualdez family. Among the first things the clan did was to arrest the eldest son of Eugenio Lopez Sr., the major stockholder of Meralco for allegedly plotting the assassination of Ferdinand Marcos.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In the years 1973–1974, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started applying the oil prize squeeze. As a public utility that supplies power needs of the metro, Meralco was caught in a vicious vice. Its fuel costs started to double, triple, and quadruple but the government refused to allow them to charge higher consumer rates. Within a year, Meralco was at the brink of bankruptcy. Government financing institutions refused to guarantee Meralco's foreign loans. As a result, the company was pushed to the edge of massive defaults in loans.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: It was here that the Marcos-Romualdez clan stepped in. According to Eugenio Lopez Sr., he was promised the release of his eldest son from prison in exchange for the sale of his control in Meralco to the Marcos-Romualdez group. After several months of negotiations and with the increasing loan defaults, Mr. Lopez conceded defeat. He even died without seeing his son Eugenio Jr. released from the Marcos martial law prison.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: After the Marcos-Romualdez takeover, the government allowed Meralco to increase consumer rates. The government gave huge subsidies to the company. On the fifth anniversary of martial rule, Jesus Bigornia of Bulletin Today wrote that Meralco rose as one of the top earners. Around Php 200 million in net income was recorded. This was 168% more than the previous year. Aside from being allowed to raise electricity rates, Meralco was also exempted from paying the duty of oil imports, which is a form of indirect subsidy it should share with poor consumers.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Massive foreign loans enabled Marcos to build more schools, hospitals and infrastructure than all of his predecessors combined, but crippled the Philippine economy. Today, according to Ibon Foundation, Filipino citizens are still bearing the heavy burden of servicing public debts incurred during Marcos's administration, with ongoing interest payments on the loan schedule by the Philippine government estimated to last until 2025–59 years after Marcos assumed office and 39 years after he was deposed.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Corazon Aquino had an opportunity to default and not pay foreign debt incurred during the Marcos administration. However, due to Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin's warning on the consequences of a debt default, which includes isolating the country from the international financial community and hampering the economic recovery, Corazon Aquino honored all the debts incurred during the Marcos Administration, contrary to expectations of left-learning organizations such as Ibon Foundation that advocated for non-payment of debt. Jaime Ongpin, who is a brother of Marcos trade minister Roberto Ongpin, was later dismissed by Cory Aquino and later died in an apparent suicide after "he had been depressed about infighting in Aquino's cabinet and disappointed that the 'People Power' uprising which had toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos had not brought significant change".


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos projected himself to the Philippine public as having spent a lot on construction projects, and his record upholds that reputation. A 2011 study by University of the Philippines School of Economics indicated that at the time of the study, Marcos was the president that spent the most on infrastructure, not just because he stayed in power for nearly two and a half decades, but in terms of actual per-year spending. By the time of the study, Marcos had only been outspent in infrastructure building for a period of one year, during the term of Fidel Ramos.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: These included hospitals like the Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center, and Kidney Center, transportation infrastructure like San Juanico Bridge (formerly Marcos Bridge), Pan-Philippine Highway, North Luzon Expressway, South Luzon Expressway, and Manila Light Rail Transit (LRT). Cultural and heritage sites like the Cultural Center of the Philippines], Nayong Pilipino, Philippine International Convention Center and the disastrous and ill-fated Manila Film Center were built as well.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: This focus on infrastructure, which critics saw as a propaganda technique, eventually earned the colloquial label "edifice complex".


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Most of these infrastructure projects and monuments were paid for using foreign currency loans and at great taxpayer cost. This greatly increased the Philippines' foreign deficit – from $360 million when Marcos became president, to around $28.3 billion when he was overthrown.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Marcos administration's spending on construction projects expanded even more with the construction of prominent building projects, mostly meant to build up Imelda Marcos's power base within the administration by projecting her as a patroness of the arts. This shift in the prioritization of projects was so significant that by 1977–1980, projects in the "conspicuous capital outlays" category had ballooned to 20% of the Philippines' capital outlays – up from a negligible percentage at the beginning of the Marcos administration.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Critics contrasted this with the fact that poverty in the countryside was a much more pressing economic issue of the time.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In addition, Imelda's "edifice complex" projects were typically constructed on a rush basis, resulting in some of them not being safe for long-term use.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The following is a list of some of the most controversial projects constructed during the Marcos era.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The CCP Complex is a 77-hectare reclaimed property in Pasay designed by Leandro Locsin. It includes the CCP main building, Folk Arts Theater, Philippine International Convention Center, Manila Film Center and Coconut Palace (also called the "Tahanang Pilipino"). It was established as a result of Ferdinand Marcos's issuance of Executive Order No. 30 s. 1966, which stated that "the preservation and promotion of Philippine culture in all its varied aspects and phases is a vital concern of the State." Following this issuance, he appointed a seven-member board of trustees, who then unanimously elected Imelda Romualdez Marcos as its chair.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: On September 8, 1969, the CCP main building was inaugurated as the "country's premier arts institution". The inauguration was originally set in January 1969, but was postponed because funds were running out from campaign overspending. The projected budget for the construction of CCP was P15 million, but by December 1968 the cost had already reached P48 million, and the construction was not even complete yet. Because of this, Imelda Romualdez Marcos loaned $7 million from the National Investment Development Corporation to finance the remaining amount. By 1972, debt for the construction of the theater alone has reached P63 million.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The San Juanico Bridge is part of the Pan-Philippine Highway and links the provinces of Leyte and Samar through Tacloban City and Santa Rita, Samar. Having a total length of , it is the longest bridge over a body of water in the Philippines. It is said to be Ferdinand Marcos's gift to his wife Imelda, whose hometown was Leyte.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Construction of the bridge began in 1969. It was inaugurated on July 2, 1973, in time for Imelda Marcos's birthday. The cost of the construction reached $22 million and was acquired through the Japanese Official Development Assistance loans.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: At the time the project was conceived, there was not a need yet for a bridge that connects Leyte and Samar, for both of these provinces were still relatively underdeveloped. There was not enough traffic between these two islands to warrant a bridge to be constructed there. It is for this reason that the San Juanico Bridge remains to be the one of the costliest white elephant projects during the Marcos era.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Construction of the Manila Film Center began in January 1981 and was spearheaded by Imelda Romualdez Marcos. It cost $25 million.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Construction work was compressed to just 10 months so it could be used as a venue for the first Manila International Film Festival scheduled on January 18, 1982. To meet the deadline, around 4,000 workers were employed to work three 24-hour nonstop shifts. The lobby, which would normally take 6 weeks to finish, was constructed in 72 hours by 1,000 workers.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: As a result of the rushed construction, a scaffolding collapsed on a group of workers on November 17, 1981, two months before the deadline. Despite the accident, work continued, and the bodies of the workers were buried in cement. Rescuers and ambulances were only permitted to enter the site 9 hours after the incident.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Following the tragedy, then Prime Minister Cesar Virata disapproved the $5 million subsidy, which was intended for the film festival. The expenses incurred during opening night and the Film Center's operations ended up being shouldered by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (then the Central Bank).


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos's signature agricultural program, Masagana 99, was thus launched on May 21, 1973, as an effort to address a nationwide rice shortage arising from the various natural disasters and pest infestations in 1972.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Its goal was to promote Philippine rice self-sufficiency by raising the Philippines' average palay crop yield from 40 cavans per hectare to 99 cavans (4.4 tons) per hectare. The program planned to achieve this by pushing farmers to use newly developed technologies including high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, low-cost fertilizer, and herbicides.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Masagana 99 also included a supervised credit scheme, which was supposed to provide farmers with the funds needed to pay for the program's technology package. The Central Bank


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: designed subsidized rediscounting facilities for public and private credit institutions throughout the country, encouraging them to give loans to farmers without collateral or other usual borrowing requirements.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The program achieved initial success by encouraging farmers to plant new "Miracle Rice" (IR8) variety of rice, which the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, and the UP College of Agriculture through the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna, had been developing since 1962, during the administration of President Carlos P. Garcia.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: While this rise of industrialized, chemical agriculture to the Philippines resulted in annual rice production in the Philippines increasing from 3.7 to 7.7 million tons in two decades and made the Philippines a rice exporter for the first time in the 20th century, the switch to IR8 required more fertilizers and pesticides. This and other related reforms resulted in high profits for transnational corporations, but were generally harmful to small, peasant farmers who were often pushed into poverty.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Economists generally acknowledge Masagana 99 to have failed because the supervised credit scheme it offered to farmers proved unsustainable. The program is said to have catered to rich landowners and has been criticized for leaving poor farmers in debt and for having become a vehicle of political patronage.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Although Masagana 99 showed promising results, the years from 1965 to 1986 showed a complete paradox of events. The income per capita rose, the economy was growing, yet people were impoverished. The American economist James K. Boyce calls this phenomenon "immiserizing growth", when economic growth, and political and social conditions, are such that the rich get absolutely richer and the poor become absolutely poorer.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: From 1972 to 1980, agricultural production fell by 30%. After declaring martial law in 1972, Marcos promised to implement agrarian reforms. However, the land reforms served largely to undermine Marcos's landholder opponents, not to lessen inequality in the countryside, and encouraged conversion to cash tenancy and greater reliance on farm workers.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: While the book claimed that agricultural production declined by 30% in the 1970s and suggested that timber exports were growing in the same period, an article published by the World Bank on Philippine Agriculture says that crops (rice, corn, coconut, sugar), livestock and poultry and fisheries grew at an average rate of 6.8%, 3% and 4.5%, respectively from 1970 to 1980, and the forestry sector actually declined by an annual average rate of 4.4% through the 1970s.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Marcos administration marked a period of intense logging exportation, with commercial logging accounting for 5% of the gross national product during the first half of the 1970s. This was the result of intense demand created by a construction boom in Japan. Timber products became one of the nation's top exports but little attention was paid to the environmental impacts of deforestation as cronies never complied with reforestation agreements.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: By the early 1980s, forestry collapsed because most of the Philippines' accessible forests had been depleted – of the 12 million hectares of forestland, about 7 million had been left barren." This was such a severe drop in the Philippines' forest cover that most Philippine logging companies had transferred their operations to Sarawak and other nearby areas by the 1980s.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Data from the Philippines' Forest Management Bureau indicates that the rate of forest destruction in the Philippines was about per year during the 1960s and 1970s, such that by 1981, the Food and Agriculture Organization classified 2 million hectares of Philippine forests "severely degraded and incapable of regeneration".


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In 1979, Marcos put a range of 11 heavy industrialization projects on the Philippines' economic agenda.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The eleven priority projects were: the construction of an aluminum smelter, a copper smelter, an integrated petrochemical complex, an integrated pulp and paper plant, an integrated steel mill, and a phosphatic fertilizer plant; the development of an alcogas industry; the expansion of the country's cement industry; the integration of the country's coconut industry; the promotion of diesel engine manufacturing; and the construction of a nuclear power plant.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Other industrialization projects during the Marcos administration included 17 hydroelectric and geothermal power plants to lessen the country's dependency on oil. With the commissioning of the Tongonan 1 and Palinpinon 1 geothermal plants in 1983, the Philippines became the second largest producer of geothermal power in the world.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Philippine economy began to go in decline in 1981 because of excessive debt, however, and finally went into a tailspin in 1984. This resulted in the closure of factories, massive layoffs, and the end of work on Marcos's industrialization projects until he was finally deposed two years later.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) is one of the six nuclear power plants that the Marcos regime planned to build. It stands in Morong, Bataan, atop Napot Point that overlooks the South China Sea. Construction of the BNPP began in 1976 and was completed in 1985.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Controversy surrounding the BNPP began well after its construction. In 1974, National Power was already negotiating with General Electric to get the order. However, Westinghouse, another energy company, hired a lobbyist: Herminio Disini, a friend of Ferdinand Marcos. Using Disini's close ties to Marcos, Westinghouse made a direct offer to Marcos and his cabinet to supply a plant with two 620 MW reactors at a base price of $500 million. The estimated total price was raised to around $650 million because of other charges like fuel and transmission lines. Soon after, the negotiations with General Electric were scrapped, and Westinghouse won the deal. By March 1975, Westinghouse's contract price increased to $1.1 billion for interest and escalation costs.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: There were numerous issues regarding its safety and usability. After the Three Mile Island incident in the United States, construction of the nuclear power plant was stopped. A safety inquiry was done subsequently, which revealed over 4,000 defects. The site chosen for the nuclear plant was also dangerous, as it was built near the open sea and the then-dormant Mount Pinatubo, and was within 25 miles of three geological faults. The nuclear plant was discontinued in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster. Its goal of generating 620 MW of electricity was never achieved.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Its cost reached over $2.3 million and was only paid off by the government in April 2017, 31 years after the beginning of its construction. However, government spending for the BNPP continues long after that. Maintaining the plant costs the government P40 million a year. In 2011, the government had to reimburse P4.2 billion to National Power Corporation for the plant's maintenance. To contribute to the cost of its maintenance, it was transformed into a tourist attraction.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Recognizing the value Filipino culture placed on education, Marcos emphasized the construction of educational infrastructure as early as during his first presidential term. By being more willing than those previous presidents to use foreign loans to fund construction projects, he was able to achieve construct more roads and schoolbuildings than any previous administration.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: 47 of the Philippines' state colleges and universities were established during Marcos's 21-year administration. Two of these, the Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Norte, and the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in La Union, were named after Marcos's father Mariano.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The Philippine education system underwent two major periods of restructuring under the Marcos administration: first in 1972 as part of the ideology of the "Bagong Lipunan" (New Society) alongside the declaration of martial law; and second in 1981 when the Fourth Philippine Republic was established.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The 1972 restructuring marked the first major restructuring of Philippine education since the arrival of the Americans at the turn of the 20th century. It reoriented the teaching of civics and history so that it would reflect values that supported the "Bagong Lipunan" and its ideology of constitutional authoritarianism. In addition, it attempted to synchronize the educational curriculum with the administration's economic strategy of labor export.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Changes sought by the second restructuring in 1981 was not extensively implemented as the administration was stymied by economic crises, and was eventually deposed.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In 1975, Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 824, placing the four cities and thirteen municipalities in the immediate vicinity of the Province of Manila under the administration of the Metro Manila Commission (MMC), which would serve as the central government of the capital.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The head of the MMC was called a "governor", but the position was an appointive rather than an elected one. Marcos appointed his wife Imelda Marcos as governor.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The governorship of Metro Manila was the second most powerful office in the republic. Given that Metro Manila accounts for around 20% of the country's population, it is estimated to be responsible for at least 70% of gross national receipts. It is the seat of the national government and some 90% of the national government's offices and instrumentalities are located within its environs. Its budget is second to the national government.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: This increase in Imelda's political power was so dramatic that it led former UN General Assembly President Carlos P. Romulo to describe her as the Philippines' "de facto vice president".


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: The country crafted a large number of decrees, laws, and edicts during Marcos's term. From 1972 to 1986, the Marcos Administration codified laws through 2,036 Presidential Decrees, an average of 145 per year during the 14-year period. To put this into context, only 14, 12, and 11 laws were passed in 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. A large number of the laws passed during the term of Marcos remain in force today and are embedded in the country's legal system. According to Imee Marcos in 2006, many of the thousands of proclamations, decrees, and executive orders Marcos issued were still in force, and few have been repealed, revoked, modified or amended.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos, together with agriculture minister and Harvard-educated Arturo Tanco and later on Salvador Escudero III, was instrumental in the Green Revolution in the Philippines and initiated an agricultural program called Masagana 99, which according to President Rodrigo Duterte and the Department of Agriculture website, improved agricultural productivity and enabled the country to achieve rice sufficiency in the late 1970s. Economists generally view Masagana 99 as a failure.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Many people who rose to power during Marcos's 21-years as president continued to remain in power or even ascended higher after his exile, thus leaving a further imprint on present-day Filipino affairs. One of these was Fidel Ramos, a general promoted by Marcos who supervised many terror killings and tortures, who later switched sides and subsequently became president himself through free elections.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: All five American presidents from 1965 to 1985 were unwilling to jeopardize the US-Marcos relationship, mainly to protect and retain access of the US military bases in the Philippines. However, at the same time, for the US the Philippines was just one of its many allies, and for the Philippines, the US was its only patron. Therefore, Marcos worked to identify himself closely with the US in order to secure a strong bargaining position with their government. Indeed, he had manipulated this American connection to sustain him during his two decades of power. US support was believed to be the only reason why Marcos remained in power.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Over his term, Marcos was able to strengthen his ties to the US government. Johnson received two engineer battalions bought with the Philippine's American aid as a form of Philippines military participation in the Vietnam War. After the fall of South Vietnam, Gerald Ford demanded better security assistance from allies, such as the Philippines, while Carter wanted to retain the US military bases in the Philippines to project military power in the Indian Ocean to guard the West's oil supply line from the Middle East. All of which, Marcos granted.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: To obtain additional aid, Marcos often leveraged on threats that caught the attention of the US government. To secure additional aid for his campaign, Marcos threatened to search every visiting American naval vessel. The US responded by assisting his campaign indirectly, injecting several million dollars into the government banking system.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: In another instance, when the issues of military bases heated up in the Philippines during 1969, Marcos secretly assured the US he had no desire for an American withdrawal. Yet he received warnings from the Philippine embassy in Washington that "provisions should now be made in anticipation of a possible phasing out or minimization of US aid to the Republic of the Philippines, both for military aid and non-military items, considering the evolving temper of the American Congress." Afraid, Marcos began to suggests threats again. In one of his presidential speeches, he stated that the bases were a threat to regional peace and security, while reminding the United States of its "solemn obligation" to continue aid. He warned that the bases could "imperil more than they serve our interests." In the last weeks of the Ford administration, Marcos had rejected the US compensation, Kissinger's package, of $1 billion in mixed grants and loans for being too small.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: A number of books were published under Marcos's name during his term from 1970 to 1983, and a final book was published in 1990 posthumously. Those published during his term are believed to have been written by ghostwriters, notably Adrian Cristobal.


title: Ferdinand Marcos

text: Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were jointly credited in 1989 by "Guinness World Records" with the largest-ever theft from a government (an estimated 5 billion to 10 billion US dollars), a record they still hold today.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: As an amateur, Joshua represented England at the 2011 World Championships in the super-heavyweight division, winning a silver medal. He also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, winning gold. In 2014, a year after turning professional, he was named Prospect of the Year by "The Ring" magazine. In 2017, his victorious fight against Wladimir Klitschko was named Fight of the Year by "The Ring" and the Boxing Writers Association of America. Joshua is the second English boxer, after James DeGale, to win both a gold medal at the Olympics and a world title by a major professional sanctioning body, as well as the first English heavyweight to do so.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: As of October 2022, Joshua is ranked as the world's second-best active heavyweight by BoxRec, third by "The Ring", and fourth by Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and ESPN, as well as the sixth-best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec. He has been ranked by BoxRec as among the world's top 10 heavyweights since 2014, and was ranked at No. 1 at the conclusion of 2016 and 2017. Joshua's knockout-to-win percentage stands at 91.67%, with an overall knockout percentage of 63.64% in world heavyweight title fights.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua was born on 15 October 1989 in Watford, Hertfordshire, the son of Yeta and Robert Joshua. His mother is Nigerian, while his father is of Nigerian and Irish ancestry. Joshua's Nigerian background can be specifically traced back to the Yoruba people, amongst whom he is of aristocratic rank. His cousin, Ben Ileyemi, is also a professional boxer. The pair made their professional debuts together in 2013. Joshua spent some of his early years in Nigeria as a boarding school student at Mayflower School in Ikenne. Following his parents' divorce when he was 12, he returned to the UK halfway through Year Seven to join Kings Langley Secondary School. Growing up on the Meriden Estate in Garston, Hertfordshire, he was called "Femi" by his friends and former teachers, due to his middle name, Oluwafemi. He excelled at football and athletics and broke his school's Year Nine 100 m record with a time of 11.6 seconds.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: A late starter in the sport, Joshua began boxing in 2007, aged 18, when his cousin suggested he take it up. His club, Finchley ABC in Barnet, North London, is also home to professional heavyweight Derek Chisora. Joshua won the 2009 and 2010 Haringey Box Cup. Joshua also won the senior ABA Championships in 2010, in only his 18th bout, and later turned down £50,000 to turn professional. "Turning down that £50,000 was easy. I didn't take up the sport for money, I want to win medals." He also went on to win the same tournament the following year. In 2010 his domestic success earned him a place on the GB Boxing team and later the same year he became British amateur champion at the GB Championships after defeating Amin Isa. At the 2011 European Championships in June he beat the German Eric Brechlin 23:16 and the Irishman Cathal McMonagle 22:10 but was stopped by the Romanian southpaw Mihai Nistor after receiving several standing counts. In October 2011 he was named Amateur Boxer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Club of Great Britain. Joshua had an amateur record of 40–3.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: During the 2011 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, Joshua marked his sudden arrival on the world scene when he beat Italian reigning world and Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle, and went on to stop Erik Pfeifer of Germany in the semis before losing by a single point to local boxer, Magomedrasul Majidov winning a silver medal. En route to the final, Joshua secured his place at the 2012 Olympic Games in the super-heavyweight division as a relative newcomer to the elite level of the sport.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua went into the 2012 London Olympics as a novice on the international scene, despite being a world silver medalist. He received a tough draw in the last 16 of the super-heavyweight event in Cuban Erislandy Savón, ranked No. 4 in the world by AIBA and nephew of the three time Olympic champion Félix Savón. The home boxer battled through three tough rounds in his opening contest before being given the result 17:16. This decision caused some controversy with most observers believing Savon had clearly won the bout


title: Anthony Joshua

text: whilst a few others taking the view that he had won on merit. In his next bout he fought 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medalist Zhang Zhilei, dropping his taller opponent in the middle round; Joshua won by 15:11 guaranteeing at least a bronze medal. In the semi-final Joshua met Kazakh boxer Ivan Dychko, and despite Joshua's height disadvantage he won by 13:11 to gain a place in the Olympic final. Joshua met 32-year-old reigning Olympic champion and former two-time world champion, Roberto Cammarelle of Italy in the closing bout. After conceding the first two rounds (6:5 and 13:10) to Cammarelle, an adversary he had already beaten the previous year, Joshua grew into the fight and fought back to level the scores after the third round (18:18). Joshua was announced winner via count-back and the new Olympic champion. The final decision was criticised by some boxing experts, being defined as a "home decision".


title: Anthony Joshua

text: He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to boxing.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 11 July 2013 it was confirmed that Joshua had turned professional under the Matchroom Sport promotional banner. Joshua made his professional debut on 5 October 2013 at the O2 Arena in London in the Main-Event of a card featuring Scott Quigg's successful WBA super-bantamweight title defence against Yoandris Salinas, beating Italian Emanuele Leo by a technical knockout (TKO) in the first round. Joshua's second fight was against English heavyweight Paul Butlin at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield on 26 October 2013. The bout was stopped in the second round when the referee decided Butlin was taking too much punishment and declared Joshua the winner by TKO. Joshua's third fight was on the Prizefighter Series card against Croatian Hrvoje Kišiček on 14 November 2013. Joshua got a TKO victory in the second round, achieving his third knockout (KO) victory in a row.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In February 2014, Joshua scored a second-round TKO victory over Dorian Darch to take his record to 4–0. The following month, on the undercard of Ricky Burns against Terence Crawford, Joshua defeated Hector Alfredo Avila with a first-round KO, in Glasgow, Scotland. In May that year Joshua knocked out Matt Legg in one round on the undercard of Carl Froch vs. George Groves II at Wembley Stadium. In Joshua's seventh fight, on 12 July 2014 at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, he defeated Englishman Matt Skelton via second-round stoppage. In Joshua's eighth fight, on 13 September 2014, against German heavyweight Konstantin Airich, Joshua took his undefeated record to 8–0 with a third-round stoppage victory at the Manchester Arena.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua was in the Main-Event of a Matchroom Sport card for the second time in his career, in his ninth professional appearance for the vacant WBC International heavyweight title against Dennis Bakhtov, the former champion looking to win the title for a second time, on 11 October 2014 at The O2 Arena in London. Joshua won the fight by KO in the second round, taking his record to 9–0 and winning the WBC International heavyweight title aged just 24.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In his tenth bout, on 22 November 2014, Joshua defeated Michael Sprott within the first round to extend his record to ten wins, all by stoppage. With the fight only lasting 1 minute and 26 seconds, it gave Joshua a total ring time in the professional ranks of just 36 minutes and 36 seconds.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: He was supposed to face American boxer Kevin Johnson on 31 January 2015 at The O2 Arena in London, but the bout was cancelled after Joshua sustained a back injury. On 4 April 2015, Joshua beat Jason Gavern with a third-round KO in his return to the ring in Newcastle. On 9 May 2015, in his twelfth bout, Joshua defeated Raphael Zumbano Love in a second-round KO in Birmingham. On 30 May 2015, Joshua defeated former world title challenger Kevin Johnson (29–6–1, 14 KOs), inflicting the first stoppage in Johnson's career. After Johnson was saved by the bell in the first round the fight was stopped by the referee shortly after the beginning of the second round. Prior to the fight, Johnson had taken the likes of Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury and Derek Chisora the twelve-round distance. A day after the fight, Johnson announced his retirement, although he made a comeback in March 2017.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 16 July 2015, it was announced that Joshua would fight undefeated Scottish boxer Gary Cornish (21–0, 12 KOs) for the vacant Commonwealth heavyweight title at The O2 Arena, London, on 12 September. At the time of the fight, Cornish was the IBO Intercontinental champion. Joshua won the vacant title by stopping Cornish at just 90 seconds in the first round. Cornish was knocked down twice before the fight was officially stopped. In the post-fight, Joshua said, "Gary had a solid jab so I had to make sure I didn't take any of those shots. He was throwing a large jab and I tried to slip it. I managed to land the right hand and it was a perfect connection and he went down."


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Immediately after Joshua stopped Cornish, Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, confirmed Dillian Whyte would next put his undefeated record on the line against Joshua. Joshua met Whyte in a grudge match for the vacant British heavyweight title on 12 December 2015, whilst also defending his Commonwealth heavyweight title for the first time. The fight took place on Sky Box Office. The two had previously fought within the amateur rankings in 2009 where Whyte had won. After surviving the first scare of his career in the second round, Joshua won the fight after initially shaking Whyte with a right hook to the temple and eventually finishing with a devastating uppercut for the KO in the seventh round. It is said that Joshua earned £3 million for this fight alone, as a result of signing a new five-year deal with Matchroom which sees him take a share of the PPV revenue earned.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In February 2016, it was announced that Joshua would face IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (23–0–1, 21 KOs) on 9 April 2016 at the O2 Arena. Martin was making the first defence of the belt that he won after defeating Vyacheslav Glazkov for the vacant title in January 2016. Joshua set the pace in the first round and kept the southpaw Martin at bay before sending him to the canvas with a straight right hand in the second round. Martin got to his feet, only to be knocked down for a second time by a similar punch just moments later. This time Martin failed to beat the count after taking too long to get up, and the referee waved the fight off, with Joshua winning his first world title.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Martin was heavily criticized for his performance, and apparent lack of ambition to win the fight. Observers accused him of quitting early, feeling that he could have got up quicker and fought on. Martin later placed the blame on the pre-fight distractions, claiming that he was 'mentally not there'. At just 85 days, Martin's reign as IBF heavyweight champion was the second shortest in professional boxing history, with only Tony Tucker's 1987 reign being shorter.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Promoter Eddie Hearn announced a three-man shortlist from the IBF's top 15 ranked boxers for Joshua's first defence of his title. This included former WBC heavyweight champion Bermane Stiverne (25–1–2, 21 KOs) and Eric Molina (25–3, 19 KOs), both of whom were recently beaten by American WBC champion Deontay Wilder, alongside unbeaten upcoming fighter Dominic Breazeale (17–0, 15 KOs). On 25 April, it was announced that Joshua's next fight will be against Dominic Breazeale on 25 June 2016 at the O2 Arena in London. Breazeale was ranked 13th by the IBF, below British pair Derek Chisora and David Haye. Breazeale became only the second boxer, after Dillian Whyte, to take Joshua past three rounds. After a dominant performance, Joshua successfully defended his IBF heavyweight title with a seventh-round knockout win. Breazeale was dropped heavily by a huge left hand. After the fight, Eddie Hearn said Joshua could next fight IBF mandatory challenger, Joseph Parker, around November. The fight averaged 289,000 viewers on Showtime in the afternoon. The card averaged 227,000 viewers.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: A week after the fight was announced against Breazeale, Joshua announced a new multi-fight deal with US broadcaster Showtime. The fight screened live in the States by Showtime after they signed up as Joshua's exclusive US partner.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: It was announced in August that Joshua would be making a second defence of his IBF title at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, on 26 November. This would mark the first time since September 2014 that Joshua would be fighting in the city. Possible names put forward for the fight were top IBF contenders Kubrat Pulev and Joseph Parker. Former unified heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko became the front-runner after his scheduled rematch with Tyson Fury was cancelled a second time.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: A deal could not be finalized for Joshua vs. Klitschko, due to the WBA delaying a decision to sanction the fight and Klitschko injuring himself, which put the fight off completely. Klitschko said he would be looking to fight Joshua in the first quarter of 2017. Bryant Jennings and David Price were the names being pushed forward to fight Joshua next, however it was announced Joshua would be fighting at the Manchester Arena, defending his world title against former world title challenger Eric Molina (25–3, 19 KOs), who was coming off a stoppage victory against Tomasz Adamek, although being behind on the official scorecards. The fight was televised in the US live on Showtime. After two one sided rounds, which saw Molina hardly throw a punch, Joshua knocked Molina out in the third round. He was first dropped after a right hand to the jaw. Molina beat the count but was met with a flurry of punches, forcing referee Steve Gray to end the fight. According to Nielsen Media Research, the fight peaked at 390,000 on Showtime, with an average viewing of 368,000 viewers. On 22 May 2018, UK Anti-Doping issued Molina with a two-year ban from fighting in the UK, backdated from 28 October 2017 until 28 October 2019. Molina tested positive for dexamethasone, a corticosteroid, after his loss to Joshua. There was some controversy as Molina had fought twice after in 2017.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 2 November 2016, the WBA agreed to sanction a unification bout between Joshua and Klitschko for the vacant WBA (Super) title, previously held by Tyson Fury. The WBA agreement was, if Joshua retained his belt against Eric Molina, the fight would take place on 29 April 2017, at Wembley Stadium in London.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: After Joshua knocked out Molina in the third round, the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight was officially announced by Hearn in the ring. WBA president Gilberto J. Mendoza confirmed that the winner will have to face mandatory challenger Luis Ortiz next, with deadlines due to be set after the unification fight. A day later the IBF announced the winner must fight their mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev. Because of this clashing with the WBA enforcing their mandatory, it was believed that either Joshua or Klitschko would have to vacate a title. In January 2017, Eddie Hearn announced that over 80,000 tickets had been sold, a new box office record, overtaking Carl Froch vs. George Groves II. He put a request in for 5,000 more tickets to be made available. It was reported that Joshua would earn in the region of £15 million for the fight. At the weigh-in, Klitschko, 41 at the time of the fight, weighed in at 240 and a quarter pounds, the lightest he had weighed since 2009. Joshua, 27, came in heavier at 250 pounds.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In front of a post-war record crowd of 90,000 in attendance, Joshua won by TKO in a high-drama war that saw both men giving their all. They fought a close and cautious first four rounds. In the fifth, Joshua came and threw a flurry of punches, forcing Klitschko to the canvas. An angry Klitschko rose up and took control for the remainder of the round, landing clean punches and scoring his own knockdown in round six. The next few rounds were again cautious, both men wary of each other, until a reinvigorated Joshua attacked Klitschko in round eleven, sending him to the canvas. Klitschko again rose but Joshua knocked him down for a second time in the round. When Klitschko rose back to his feet, Joshua threw a barrage of unanswered punches while Klitschko was against the ropes, prompting the referee to stop the fight.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: At the time of stoppage, Joshua was ahead on two of the judges' scorecards at 96–93 and 95–93, while the third judge had Klitschko ahead with 95–93. CompuBox stats showed that Joshua landed 107 of his 355 punches thrown (30%), and Klitschko landed 94 of 256 (37%). Joshua called out Fury in the post fight interview, "Tyson Fury, where you at, baby? Come on -- that's what they want to see. I just want to fight everyone. I'm really enjoying this right now." In the press conference after the fight, Joshua said he would have no issues with having another fight with Klitschko, "I don't mind fighting him again, if he wants the rematch. Big respect to Wladimir for challenging the young lions of the division. It's up to him, I don't mind. As long as Rob thinks it's good I'm good to go." Eddie Hearn said Joshua's next fight would likely take place at the end of the year, possibly at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: The fight averaged 659,000 viewers on Showtime in the United States. It was shown live and the fight began around 5 pm. ET and 2 pm. PT. Nielsen Media Research revealed the fight peaked at 687,000 viewers which was during rounds five and six. This was an increase from Joshua's previous Showtime numbers that aired live during the late afternoon. The delayed tape-replay on HBO was watched by an average 738,000 viewers and peaked at 890,000. In a press release, German TV channel RTL announced the fight was watched by an average 10.43 million viewers. The whole card averaged 9.59 million viewers. This was higher than the 8.91 million that tuned in to watch Klitschko vs. Fury in 2015.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 7 June 2017, the IBF granted Joshua an exemption for him to rematch Klitschko instead of fighting mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev. At this point, it was not said that the rematch would take place. Klitschko said he needed time to review his situation before agreeing to a rematch. It was only weeks after the fight, when Eddie Hearn filed the paperwork to the IBF to request the exemption to the mandatory defence. IBF explained that the rematch must take place no later than 2 December 2017, and the winner must fight Pulev next with no exemptions. On 2 August, Joshua revealed he would need to start a three-month training camp on 22 August, if he was to fight on 11 November, therefore hoping a fight with Klitschko would be finalised by then. However, on 3 August 2017, soon after the IBF granted an exemption, Klitschko announced on his website and social media channels that he was retiring from the sport of boxing. Thus, ending the possibility of a Joshua v Klitschko rematch.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 3 August 2017, Klitschko announced on his website and social media channels that he was retiring from boxing. As a result, on 4 August, upon learning that Klitschko had retired, the IBF immediately ordered Joshua and 36-year-old Kubrat Pulev (25–1, 13 KOs) to fight next, with a deal needing to be reached by 3 September 2017. The WBA then ordered Joshua to make his mandatory defence against their top ranked fighter Luis Ortiz, giving them 30 days to reach a deal. According to Hearn, the plan was to fight Pulev next, followed by Ortiz and then a potential unification fight against Deontay Wilder. On 22 August, details between the camps of Joshua and Pulev were being discussed and close to being finalised for the date of 28 October 2017, with Las Vegas as the potential host.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 28 August, it was announced that Joshua and Pulev would fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Promoter Eddie Hearn made the official announcement on 5 September, "I'm delighted that we will be in Cardiff at the magnificent Principality Stadium for the next step of the AJ journey. Nearly 80,000 will gather on Oct. 28 to create another unforgettable night of boxing. Anthony will meet his mandatory challenger, [IBF] No. 1-ranked Kubrat Pulev, and the card will be stacked with world championship action, domestic title fights and the very best young stars in the game. Get ready for the next episode from the biggest star in world boxing." The official press conference took place on 11 September, and the following day, a reported 70,000 tickets had been sold, making it the fastest selling event. It also set the record of largest boxing attendance to be expected indoors. The previous record was Muhammad Ali vs. Leon Spinks rematch which gathered 63,000 fans at the New Orleans Superdome in 1978. Joshua's three-fight deal with Showtime had expired, giving Eddie Hearn the chance to talk to other providers. Showtime had the right of first option and a matching right, if any providers bid higher. When HBO bid $1.6 million for the rights to show the fight, Showtime matched the bid, meaning the fight would be shown live in the afternoon on Showtime.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 16 October, rumours circulated that Pulev had suffered an injury, which could see the fight being in jeopardy. The same reports suggested the injury was 10 days old, but Pulev's camp had kept it quiet. The injury was later revealed to be true and 36-year-old Carlos Takam (35–3–1, 27 KOs), who was ranked number 3 by the IBF, stepped in to replace Pulev on 12 days notice. Eddie Hearn said in a statement that he received a phone call from Pulev's promoter , advising him of a shoulder injury he had sustained during sparring. Hearn revealed when the Joshua vs. Pulev fight was made, he contacted Takam's camp, knowing they would be next in line and told them to begin a training camp and stay on standby. IBF stated that Joshua fighting Takam would satisfy his mandatory defence. Despite Hearn claiming Joshua would weigh around 235–240 pounds, he officially weighed a career-heavy 254 pounds, while Takam came in a 235 pounds.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On fight night, in front of nearly 80,000 fans in attendance, Joshua retained his world titles with what many believed was a premature stoppage in round ten. The official time of stoppage was 1 minute, 34 seconds. Many fans ringside booed the referee stoppage, which saw Takam go out on his feet. After a cagey first round, the second round saw Takam accidentally headbutt Joshua's nose, likely breaking it, causing Joshua's eyes to water. In round four, Joshua opened up a cut above Takam's right eye. After the referee checked the eye, Joshua knocked Takam down with a left hook to the head. He beat the count and lasted the remainder of the round. Another cut appeared above Takam's left eye in round seven. Referee Phil Edwards asked the ringside doctor to take a look at Takam a few times during the fight. In rounds eight and nine, Joshua started to back off, which saw Takam come forward and land some good shots to Joshua's head. In round ten, Joshua landed a clean right uppercut followed by a barrage of punches. Referee Phil Edwards, seeing this, stepped in between, halting the fight. A doctor confirmed that Joshua's nose was not broken, only bruised and swollen.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: It was revealed at the time of the stoppage, judges Pawel Kardyni and Michael Alexander had Joshua ahead 89–81, whilst judge Ron McNair had the fight 90–80 perfect for Joshua. In the post-fight interview, Joshua was asked about the stoppage, to which he replied, "It was a good fight until the ref stopped it, I have the utmost respect for Takam. I have no interest for what's going on with the officials. My job is the opponent. I don't have control over the ref's decision." Takam believed the fight was stopped too early, stating he would appreciate a rematch. Hearn and Joshua spoke about potential fights in 2018, which included fights with Joseph Parker and Deontay Wilder, where a win against both would see Joshua the undisputed champion and an all-English clash against Tyson Fury. CompuBox stats showed that Joshua landed 152 of 454 punches thrown (34%) and Takam was less busy connecting 52 of his 222 thrown (23%). The fight, which was shown live in the US on Showtime, averaged 334,000 viewers. A replay was shown later in the evening, which averaged 309,000 viewers.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: It was reported that Joseph Parker's team were looking at Lucas Browne as a potential match-up if they failed to land a unification fight with Joshua. According to Higgins, a date in March 2018 was being discussed with Joshua's team, however Eddie Hearn offered an 80–20 split, which would favour Joshua. Higgins spoke to Fairfax Media, saying the offer would need to be more reasonable, also taking into consideration the fight would take place in the UK. Other names discussed for a Summer 2018 fight included Bryant Jennings and Alexander Povetkin. According to a Tweet from Parker on 15 November, he was offered less than half of what was paid to Charles Martin when he defended his IBF title against Joshua. The next day, Higgins told Fairfax Media that he and Hearn were still negotiating a deal that would benefit all parties. Parker stated he was willing to drop to 35% of the net profit. Higgins made a final offer to Hearn on 22 November. He told Sky Sports, "It's our final bottom line decision. We feel anything less is disrespectful or a disgrace." On 29 November, Hearn stated the fight could be confirmed within two weeks. Higgins listed Camp Nou as the potential venue. According to Hearn on 11 December, a deal was very close to being announced with the Principality Stadium a frontrunner to host the fight. Hearn jokingly said they were over-paying Parker, with the deal being 65–35. On 28 December, Higgins announced that a split had been agreed which would see Parker earn between 30 and 35% of the purse and the fight should take place in April 2018. Higgins stated that a rematch clause would be in place for Joshua, should he lose. In a potential rematch, Parker would get a 55% split. On 8 January 2018, the Principality Stadium in Cardiff was confirmed as the venue for the fight. On 14 January, negotiations came to a close and the fight was officially announced to take place on 31 March in Cardiff, live on Sky Sports Box Office. In an official press release on 5 February, Showtime announced they would televise the fight live in the US. On 16 February, it was noted that Joshua was weighed around 247 pounds, nearly 10 pounds lighter than he weighed against Takam. A picture was posted on Twitter which revealed the scales that Joshua stood on, his weight was at 112.9 kilograms. Joshua and Parker both came in lighter compared to their respective previous bouts. Parker weighed in first at 236.7 pounds, his lightest since he fought Solomon Haumono in 2016. Joshua weighed 242.2 pounds, his lightest since 2014 when he fought Michael Sprott. It was reported that Joshua would earn a career-high £18 million and Parker would also earn a career-high pay of £8 million.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua was forced to go the distance for the first time in his 20–0 career, to defeat Parker, via twelve-round unanimous decision (UD) to claim Parker's WBO heavyweight title, as well as retain his WBA (Super), IBF and IBO titles. The judges scored the fight 118–110 twice, and 119–109 in favour of Joshua. Many media outlets including ESPN had the fight around 116–112 with Joshua the clear winner. With going the distance, Joshua's 20 fight knockout streak came to an end. Parker used his movement well to slip a lot of Joshua's attacks but in doing so did not do enough himself to win more rounds. Parker started on the backfoot in the opening rounds allowing Joshua to gain a foothold. There was an accidental clash of heads in round three, however neither boxer was cut from this. There was another accidental head-butt in round nine where the referee called for a short break. Joshua's tape on his left glove kept coming loose and he was ordered to go back to his corner for a re-tape. Parker suffered a cut over his left eye after Joshua accidentally elbowed him. In round twelve, neither boxer engaged as much as expected with Joshua trying to track Parker down, who again, on the back-foot, looked to survive the round. The fight was marred by Italian referee Giuseppe Quartarone, who kept both boxers from fighting on the inside. This mostly had a negative impact on Parker, where he was seen to have the most success. The referee was breaking the action each time both boxers were on the inside, even when they were still throwing shots. Many boxers, pundits and both the Sky Sports and Showtime broadcast teams criticised the referee during and after the fight.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: After the fight, Joshua explained his game plan for the fight, "My strategy in there was kind of stick behind the jab. It's one of the most important weapons. The old saying is the right hand could take you around the block, but a good jab will take you around the world. And that secured another championship belt. So I stuck behind the jab and I made sure anything that was coming back, I was switched on, I was focused and 12 rounds, baby! I thought it was hard, right?" Parker was humble in defeat and stated he would be back even stronger, "Today I got beaten by a better champion, bigger man. A lot to work on. It was a good experience being here. Thank you all for the opportunity to fight in this big stadium. We're gonna go back, train hard, plan again and come back stronger. No regrets, you know, take it on the chin. … So we'll be back again." When asked what he would do different, Parker replied, "Work harder. Come back stronger, more punches. But I would love to have another go. Just back to the drawing board." During the post fight press conference, Parker's team stated the referee did not speak English, whereas Joshua and his promoter Hearn disagreed and said he spoke English fluently. CompuBox punch stats showed that Joshua landed 139 of 383 punches thrown (36.3%) and Parker landed 101 of his 492 thrown (20.5%).


title: Anthony Joshua

text: The fight was shown live in the US on Showtime in the afternoon. The live showing averaged 346,000 viewers and peaked at 379,000 viewers. A replay was shown later in the evening which saw an increase. The replay averaged 430,000 viewers and peaked at 483,000 viewers. Nielsen Media Research, who released the figures do not have the facility to measure whether the same customers that watched the live showing tuned in for the replay.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: From April up until the end of June 2018, both camps of Joshua and Wilder were in talks around the super fight between the two to finally take place. The main hurdles were the purse split, date and venue. At one point Wilder had agreed to fight Joshua in the UK, however there was slight confusions in the contracts that were being sent back and forth. At the same time, Hearn was also working out a deal for Joshua to fight WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (34–1, 24 KOs). The WBA initially ordered the fight after Povetkin knocked out David Price on the Joshua-Parker undercard. Negotiations took a turn on 26 June when the WBA gave Joshua's camp 24 hours to finalise a deal with Povetkin. With Joshua closer to fighting Povetkin in September 2018, Hearn stated the Joshua-Wilder fight would still take place in April 2019 at Wembley Stadium. Hearn later explained that the WBA would have granted an exemption, had Wilder signed a deal to fight Joshua.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 5 July, Hearn announced that Wembley Stadium in London would host Joshua's next two fights on 22 September 2018 and again on 13 April 2019. On 16 July, Joshua vs. Povetkin for the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles was officially announced for 22 September on Sky Box Office. Many British pundits and trainers spoke of how Joshua should not underestimate Povetkin and how he would pose a big threat to Joshua. On 27 July, Joshua signed a new three-year deal with Matchroom Boxing, which would see him showcased on Sky Box Office for at least another five fights, including the bout with Povetkin. On 1 August, it was revealed by the WBO that the bout against Povetkin would satisfy Joshua's mandatory defences for both the WBA and WBO, since Povetkin was ranked as number 1 by both governing bodies. It was also announced that Joshua would be named the WBO's Super Champion should he defeat Povetkin.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In front of nearly 80,000 in attendance, Joshua overcame an initial struggle, eventually knocking out Povetkin in round seven to retain his world titles. Using his movement and coming in and out, Povetkin had Joshua hurt early on with his big shots. In round two, Joshua's nose began to bruise. From round five, Povetkin began to tire. Joshua dropped Povetkin with a left hand to the head in round seven. Povetkin got back up but Joshua was straight back in with a flurry of hard shots, prompting the referee to stop the fight. At the time of stoppage, the three judges scorecards were 58–56 twice, and 59–55 in favour of Joshua.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In the post-fight interview, Joshua stated, "I've got my knockout streak back and I found my right hand again. Alexander Povetkin is a very tough challenge. He provided that, he was good with left hook. I realized he was strong to the head but weak to the body so I was switching it up. Every jab takes a breath out of you and I slowed him down." He then stated he would post a poll on Twitter asking the fans who they would like to see him fight next. CompuBox stats showed that Joshua landed 90 of 256 punches thrown (35%), with 53 of them landed being jabs. Povetkin landed 47 of his 181 thrown (26%). Povekin connected with 43 power shots compared to Joshua 37 landed. There was also a huge size advantage in favour of Joshua, who weighed 246 pounds to Povetkin's 222 pounds. It was reported that Joshua would earn around £20 million and Povetkin would earn around £6 million for the fight.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 29 December 2018, with Joshua's Wembley date still on hold, Hearn stated that Dillian Whyte was the frontrunner to challenge Joshua. Whilst still waiting for Hearn to contact him, Whyte claimed to hear rumours that Joshua would drop the Wembley date and instead fight American contender Jarrell Miller at Madison Square Garden. On 12 January 2019, Whyte revealed that he had turned down a 'severe lowball' offer from Joshua to fight him in a rematch. Whyte did not reveal the figure, however claimed it was lower than what he received against Chisora in December 2018. By 21 January, Hearn stated there could be a possibility Joshua may well fight in the US instead. According to Hearn, it was Joshua who was making the offer for the Whyte fight. Whyte claimed Joshua did not want to fight him, as he had known since September 2018, that he would be fighting in April 2019, yet did not make any offers. On 1 February, Hearn admitted it was becoming highly unlikely that Joshua would still fight at Wembley Stadium on 13 April. On 2 February, Whyte claimed the Joshua fight 'was dead' and he was to look at other options, including a potential fight with Dominic Breazeale. According to Miller, Joshua initially offered Whyte $3 million, then increased the offer to $5 million, only to go down to $3.5 million.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 8 February, terms were agreed for Joshua to defend his unified heavyweight titles against Jarrell Miller (23–0–1, 20 KOs) on 1 June at Madison Square Garden in New York City, marking Joshua's US debut. The event became the highest grossing pre-sale in the arena's boxing history. The launch presser began to heat up right from the start after Miller shoved Joshua during their first face off. It eventually settled down and both parties took to their seats. From there on, it was a back and forth verbal exchange, before Miller stormed off the stage. Joshua stayed and answered any remaining questions from the media. It was reported that Joshua would pocket £19.3 million (equivalent to $25 million) for his US debut. Another report claimed Joshua was to earn an estimated $32 million. Miller's deal with DAZN ensured he received a career-high purse of $4.875 million, which would include two more bouts on DAZN worth $3 million.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 17 April 2019, both camps confirmed the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association had informed them that Miller had tested positive for the banned substance GW1516. The test results were from a random VADA-conducted urine test Miller submitted to on 20 March. Further tests taken on 31 March proved positive for EPO, HGH and GW1516 again. Many boxers, including Ivan Dychko and Manuel Charr put their names forward to fight Joshua instead. Hearn reportedly spoke to 16 heavyweights in the space of 24 hours. Luis Ortiz was the first name that Joshua wanted as a replacement. Hearn was adamant that Joshua would still fight on that date as 17,000 tickets had already been sold, with 10,000 of those being from Britain.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Prior to his fight with Alexander Dimitrenko, on 20 April, former world title challenger Andy Ruiz Jr. (31–1, 20 KOs) put his name forward to replace Miller and challenge Joshua for the unified heavyweight titles on 1 June 2019. On 22 April, Ruiz confirmed his team had a meeting scheduled with promoter Eddie Hearn, officially putting himself in the running. Ruiz became a frontrunner after it was reported Luis Ortiz' team had rejected two offers of career high purses to fight Joshua. Terms were agreed within a week. On 1 May, with one month to go before fight night, Joshua vs. Ruiz was confirmed and announced to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City exclusively on DAZN in the US. It was reported that Ruiz would earn around $7 million (£5.36m) for the bout.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua dropped Ruiz in the third round, for the first time in the challenger's career. Ruiz beat the count, and scored his own knock down moments later. Joshua was down again towards the end of the round in a massive turn around. Joshua managed to survive the next few rounds, but after a further two knock-downs in the seventh round, the referee waved the fight off, therefore giving Ruiz the win by TKO in the seventh round, gaining all of Joshua's four heavyweight titles. At the time of stoppage, Ruiz was leading the fight 57–56 on two scorecards and Joshua was leading 57–56 on the other. It is considered to be one of the biggest upsets in the history of boxing, rivalling Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: A rematch took place on 7 December 2019 at the purpose built Diriyah Arena in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. At the weigh-in, Joshua came in at 237 pounds (107 kg), nearly ten pounds (4.5 kg) lighter than in the pair's first match. By contrast, Ruiz weighed in at 284 pounds (129 kg), 16 pounds (7.5 kg) heavier than before. On the night, Joshua boxed a disciplined fight, keeping Ruiz at a distance with his jab and using lateral movement to avoid trading punches up close as he had in their first encounter. He started off well, landing a sharp right hand in the first round that cut Ruiz to the side of his left eye. Joshua continued to box economically and land the more meaningful punches. Ruiz had some success when he tagged Joshua to the head and body at the end of the fourth round, but Joshua remained firmly in control of the action. He won via unanimous decision to reclaim the unified heavyweight titles with scores of 118–110 on two judges' scorecards and 119–109 on the other's. In his post-fight interview, a jubilant Joshua declared, "Man, the first time was so nice, I had to do it twice... Stay hungry, stay humble. I'm humble in defeat and will stay humble in victory." Ruiz showed his opponent respect, saying "Anthony Joshua did a hell of a job."


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua had been initially announced to fight Kubrat Pulev in 2017, but a late injury to Pulev saw Carlos Takam replace him for the fight. On 2 March 2020 it was announced that Joshua would defend his heavyweight titles against Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs), who was IBF mandatory challenger, at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 20 June. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight was postponed indefinitely on 3 April 2020. The fight was re-announced with a new date of 12 December and a new venue of The O2 Arena in London. The fight was later moved again to Wembley Arena, and it was announced that up to 1,000 fans would be able to attend due to the recent relaxation of coronavirus restrictions. On the night, Joshua dropped his opponent twice in the third round, and ultimately defeated Pulev by ninth-round knockout to retain his unified heavyweight titles. Former five-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. had been in attendance; Joshua paid tribute to him after the fight, saying "It was an honour to have him in the house. I respect him highly for what he has achieved. He came to see me perform and I pulled off one of his favourite moves - the pull-counter." Mayweather reciprocated the praise, saying "I'm proud of Joshua. He is one of the best heavyweights out there. He won [an Olympic] gold medal, his career is going great, a two-time heavyweight champion. He is a hell of a fighter. He is a gentleman and I enjoy his craft."


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Immediately after defeating IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev on 12 December 2020 in London, Joshua was asked in the post-fight interview about the prospect of an undisputed fight with undefeated WBC and "The Ring" champion Tyson Fury, to which Joshua responded, "Whoever's got the belt, I'd love to compete with him. If that is Tyson Fury, let it be Tyson Fury." A two-fight deal between the two champions had been agreed "in principle" since June 2020. On 17 May 2021, Fury announced on his social media that the fight between him and Joshua would take place on 14 August 2021 in Saudi Arabia. However, within 24 hours of the announcement, arbitration judge Daniel Weinstein ruled that former WBC champion Deontay Wilder was entitled to exercise his option for a third fight with Fury on a date up to 15 September; this put the proposed bout between Joshua and Fury in jeopardy, as Wilder indicated that he was not prepared to stand aside to allow the British boxers to proceed. As a result of these developments, on 21 May the WBO gave Joshua's camp 48 hours to come to an agreement for the fight with Fury, or they would instead order a bout against their mandatory challenger, former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua and Fury's camps could not reach an agreement, and thus on 22 May the WBO issued the instruction that Joshua would have to fight Usyk, with an agreement for the bout to be in place by 31 May. On 20 July, an official announcement was made, confirming that the fight between Joshua and Usyk would be taking place on 25 September at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. On the night, Usyk produced an upset, outboxing the champion Joshua over 12 rounds to claim a unanimous decision victory, with scores of 117–112, 116–112 and 115–113, handing Joshua the second professional loss of his career. Usyk's movement and variety in his fighting proved to be too much for Joshua, as Usyk nearly stopped the champion in the final seconds of the last round.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: On 29 September 2021, four days after Oleksandr Usyk defeated Joshua to become unified world heavyweight champion, it was announced by his promoter Alexander Krassyuk that a one-sided rematch clause which had been specified in the fight contract had "already been activated in principle, from the side of Joshua." Krassyuk noted that Usyk relished the prospect of squaring off against Joshua twice: "So I remember when we discussed with Oleksandr the issue of rematch, he was delighted and said 'Wow, cool, I will beat Antokha [sic] twice.'" Regarding the venue of the rematch, Usyk made it known that he hoped it would take place in his native country of Ukraine, saying, "I would love to have the rematch at Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv." However, Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn, stated that Ukraine was a "very unlikely" venue, as he wanted to maximise income: "I think it will be international or the UK, I would think it would be in the UK." On 19 June 2022, it was officially announced that Usyk would be facing Joshua in a rematch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 20 August. The fight would mark the first defence of Usyk's world heavyweight titles, while it was Joshua's twelfth consecutive world heavyweight title fight as he attempted to become a three-time world heavyweight champion.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Despite Joshua's much improved performance compared to his first loss to Usyk, the latter successfully defended his belts by a split decision with one judge scoring the fight 115–113 to Joshua, while the other two judges scoring it 115–113 and 116–112 in Usyk's favour. According to "New York Times" statistics, Joshua landed 37 body punches compared to 15 in their first fight. Overall, however, Usyk outperformed Joshua, landing 170 of 712 punches, compared with 124 of 492 for Joshua. According to CompuBox, Usyk established new records for punches landed by an Anthony Joshua opponent (170) and most punches landed on Joshua in a single round (39 punches in the 10th round). After the announcement of the judges' scorecards, Joshua threw two of Usyk's belts out of the ring and started to walk out of the arena, but came back and once in control of the microphone gave an emotional speech, talking about his life, fighting, Ukraine, and praising Usyk. Shortly after, Joshua was recorded backstage responding to a bystander who had criticised him, yelling: "Who are you talking to? Who are you talking to? Shut your fucking mouth.” In the post-fight press conference, Joshua broke down in tears.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua is recognised as one of the most marketable athletes in the world, and has lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Under Armour, Beats By Dre, and Lucozade. In 2017, he was ranked as the world's most marketable athlete, ahead of basketball player Stephen Curry, who was ranked most marketable the previous year. Along with his boxing ability, this has been attributed to his "rags to riches" story, enforcing a narrative that he avoided a life of violence and crime by dedicating himself to boxing. Joshua has spoken of his ambition to surpass Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s reported career earnings of $700 million, saying in an interview with GQ, "When I first started, the aim was to become a multi-millionaire. But now there are ordinary people, grandmas and grandads, who are worth millions just because of property prices. So the new school of thought is that I need to be a billionaire. Being a millionaire is good but you have to set your sights higher."


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua has also been recognised with his inclusion in the annual "Powerlist" as one of the 100 most influential Black Britons, most recently in the 2021 edition. He has a tattoo of the continent of Africa on his right shoulder, with the territory of Nigeria outlined, and says he feels a strong connection to his Nigerian roots.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In August 2022, Joshua faced questions around the controversy of his world-title challenge taking place in Saudi Arabia. He was also questioned about the human rights situation in the Kingdom, after the Arab authorities sentenced a 34-year-old woman for 34 years in prison over her Twitter activity. However, he said that people were “loving the positive side of things” and they “don’t focus on anything that’s negative”. Yasser al-Khayat, whose brother Mustafa was executed by Saudi authorities, also wrote a letter to Joshua and urged him to stand up for the human rights. He wrote to Joshua that speaking out could make a real difference, as Saudi uses the events like boxing “to distract from its oppression”.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua was previously criticised for a set of incidents in November 2017. He called heavyweight boxer Eddie Chambers a "disgrace to the superior black race" on Instagram. Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn said the message came from a fake account, but the false claim was debunked when Chambers proved that it had indeed been sent from Joshua's verified account.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua later appeared to voice support for Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe on Snapchat. Hearn subsequently stated Joshua has "got a major problem with his social media accounts" and suggested the accounts may have been hacked.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In June 2020, Joshua was accused of racism for his speech at a Black Lives Matter protest in Watford, where he said "show them where it hurts, abstain from spending your money in their shops and economies, and invest in black-owned businesses." This was interpreted by some as a call to boycott white businesses. In response, he said the speech was not his own and that he had only read it out on behalf of a friend. He also said, "If you think I'm a racist, go f*** yourself."


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua has expressed an interest in chess as well as reading as a way to reinforce his boxing and tactical abilities. He was a bricklayer before taking up boxing full-time.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In 2009, Joshua was put on remand in Reading Prison for what he describes as "fighting and other crazy stuff." He was made to wear an electronic tag on his ankle when released.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In March 2011, Joshua was pulled over by the police for speeding in Colindale, North London. He was found with eight ounces (226.8 grams) of herbal cannabis hidden in a sports bag in his Mercedes-Benz. He was charged with possession with intent to supply a class B drug, an offence that carries a maximum 14-year sentence. Joshua was suspended from the GB Boxing squad and was sentenced to a 12-month community order and 100 hours' unpaid work after pleading guilty at crown court.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: Joshua previously stated in 2012 that he does not support a football team, but when asked in an interview in 2017, he said that although he supports his local team Watford F.C., his "overall favourite" team was Real Madrid C.F. because of Cristiano Ronaldo, as Ronaldo was a Real Madrid player at the time. In the same interview, he also described English footballer Troy Deeney, who he met by chance at a local barbershop in his hometown Watford, as his "good friend".


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In an interview with iFL TV in July 2014, Joshua named Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, and Evander Holyfield as his top five greatest heavyweight boxers of all-time.


title: Anthony Joshua

text: In 2020, Joshua spoke about his positive relationship with his longtime promoter Eddie Hearn, who has promoted him since his professional debut in 2013, saying that he "and Eddie will always have a great friendship."


title: Spirited Away

text: Miyazaki wrote the screenplay after he decided the film would be based on the ten-year-old daughter of his friend Seiji Okuda, the film's associate producer, who came to visit his house each summer. At the time, Miyazaki was developing two personal projects, but they were rejected. With a budget of US$19 million, production of "Spirited Away" began in 2000. Pixar animator John Lasseter, a fan and friend of Miyazaki, convinced Walt Disney Pictures to buy the film's North American distribution rights, and served as executive producer of its English-dubbed version. Lasseter then hired Kirk Wise as director and Donald W. Ernst as producer, while screenwriters Cindy and Donald Hewitt wrote the English-language dialogue to match the characters' original Japanese-language lip movements.


title: Spirited Away

text: Originally released in Japan on 20 July 2001 by distributor Toho, the film received universal acclaim, grossing at the worldwide box office. Accordingly, it became the most successful and highest-grossing film in Japanese history with a total of ($305 million). It held the record for 19 years until it was surpassed by "" in 2020.


title: Spirited Away

text: "Spirited Away" has been regarded as Miyazaki's magnum opus, and often listed among the greatest films of all time. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, making it the first, and to date only, hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win the award. It was the co-recipient of the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (shared with "Bloody Sunday"), and is within the top ten on the British Film Institute's list of "Top 50 films for children up to the age of 14". In 2016, it was voted the fourth-best film of the 21st century by the BBC, as picked by 177 film critics from around the world, making it the highest-ranking animated film on the list. In 2017, it was also named the second "Best Film...of the 21st Century So Far" by "The New York Times". In 2022, it was ranked as the 75th greatest film of all time by the Sight & Sound critics poll.


title: Spirited Away

text: Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents are traveling to their new home when her father decides to take a shortcut. The family's car stops in front of a tunnel leading to what appears to be an abandoned amusement park, which Chihiro's father insists on exploring, despite his daughter's protest. They find a seemingly empty restaurant still stocked with food, which Chihiro's parents immediately begin to eat. While exploring further, Chihiro reaches an enormous bathhouse and meets a boy named Haku, who warns her to return across the riverbed before sunset. However, Chihiro discovers that her parents have been transformed into pigs, and she is unable to cross the now-flooded river.


title: Spirited Away

text: Haku finds Chihiro and instructs her to ask for a job from the bathhouse's boiler-man, Kamaji, a yōkai commanding the susuwatari. Kamaji refuses to hire her and asks worker Lin to send Chihiro to Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse. Yubaba tries to frighten Chihiro away, but she persists, and is eventually given a working contract. Yubaba takes away the second kanji of her name, renaming her . While visiting her parents' pigpen, Sen realizes that she had already forgotten her real name. Haku warns her that Yubaba controls people by taking their names, and that if she forgets hers like he has forgotten his, she will never be able to leave the spirit world.


title: Spirited Away

text: Sen faces discrimination from the other workers; only Kamaji and Lin show sympathy for her. While working, she invites a silent creature named No-Face ("Kaonashi" ) inside, believing him to be a customer. A "stink spirit" arrives as Sen's first customer, and she discovers he is the spirit of a polluted river. In gratitude for cleaning him, he gives Sen a magic emetic dumpling. Meanwhile, No-Face imitates the gold left behind by the river spirit and tempts a worker with it, then swallowing him. No-Face demands food from the bathhouse and begins giving away extensive amounts of gold to its workers.


title: Spirited Away

text: Sen sees paper Shikigami attacking a dragon and recognizes the dragon as Haku metamorphosed. When a grievously injured Haku crashes into Yubaba's penthouse, Sen follows him upstairs. A shikigami that stowed away on her back shapeshifts into Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister. She turns Yubaba's son, Boh, into a mouse, and creates a false copy of him. Zeniba tells Sen that Haku has stolen a magic golden seal from her, and warns Sen that it carries a deadly curse. Haku strikes the shikigami, causing Zeniba to vanish. He falls into the boiler room with Sen, where she feeds him part of the emetic dumpling, causing him to vomit up the seal and a black slug, which Sen crushes with her foot.


title: Spirited Away

text: With Haku unconscious, Sen resolves to return the seal and apologize to Zeniba. Sen confronts an engorged No-Face, and feeds him the rest of the dumpling. No-Face follows Sen out of the bathhouse, steadily regurgitating everything that he has eaten. Sen, No-Face, and Boh travel to see Zeniba with train tickets given to her by Kamaji. Meanwhile, Yubaba orders that Sen's parents be slaughtered, but Haku reveals that Boh is missing and offers to retrieve him if Yubaba releases Sen and her parents. Yubaba agrees, but only if Sen can pass a final test.


title: Spirited Away

text: Sen meets with Zeniba, who makes her a magic hairband and reveals that Yubaba used the black slug to take control over Haku. Haku appears at Zeniba's home in his dragon form and offers to fly them home. No-Face decides to stay behind with Zeniba and become her spinner, while Sen and Boh leave with Haku for the bathhouse. In mid-flight, Sen recalls falling years ago into the Kohaku River and being washed safely ashore, correctly guessing Haku's real identity as . When they arrive at the bathhouse, Yubaba forces Sen to identify her parents from among a group of pigs in order to leave. After she answers correctly that none of the pigs are her parents, her contract disappears and she is given back her real name. Haku takes her to the now-dry riverbed and vows to meet her again. Chihiro crosses the riverbed to her restored parents, who do not remember anything after eating at the restaurant stall. They walk back through the tunnel until they reach their car, now covered in dust and leaves. Before getting in, Chihiro looks back at the tunnel, her hair tie from Zeniba still intact.


title: Spirited Away

text: Every summer, Hayao Miyazaki spent his vacation at a mountain cabin with his family and five girls who were friends of the family. The idea for "Spirited Away" came about when he wanted to make a film for these friends. Miyazaki had previously directed films for small children and teenagers such as "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service", but he had not created a film for ten-year-old girls. For inspiration, he read shōjo manga magazines like "Nakayoshi" and "Ribon" the girls had left at the cabin, but felt they only offered subjects on "crushes" and romance. When looking at his young friends, Miyazaki felt this was not what they "held dear in their hearts" and decided to produce the film about a young heroine whom they could look up to instead.


title: Spirited Away

text: Miyazaki had wanted to produce a new film for years, but his two previous proposalsone based on the Japanese book by Sachiko Kashiwaba, and another about a teenage heroinewere rejected. His third proposal, which ended up becoming "Sen and Chihiro's Spirited Away", was more successful. The three stories revolved around a bathhouse that was inspired by one in Miyazaki's hometown. He thought the bathhouse was a mysterious place, and there was a small door next to one of the bathtubs in the bath house. Miyazaki was always curious to what was behind it, and he made up several stories about it, one of which inspired the bathhouse setting of "Spirited Away".


title: Spirited Away

text: Production of "Spirited Away" commenced in February 2000 on a budget of (US$15 million). Walt Disney Pictures financed ten percent of the film's production cost for the right of first refusal for American distribution. As with "Princess Mononoke", Miyazaki and the Studio Ghibli staff experimented with computer animation. With the use of more computers and programs such as Softimage 3D, the staff learned the software, but used the technology carefully so that it enhanced the story, instead of "stealing the show". Each character was mostly hand-drawn, with Miyazaki working alongside his animators to see they were getting it just right. The biggest difficulty in making the film was to reduce its length. When production began, Miyazaki realized it would be more than three hours long if he made it according to his plot. He had to delete many scenes from the story, and tried to reduce the "eye candy" in the film because he wanted it to be simple. Miyazaki did not want to make the hero a "pretty girl". At the beginning, he was frustrated at how she looked "dull" and thought, "She isn't cute. Isn't there something we can do?" As the film neared the end, however, he was relieved to feel "she will be a charming woman."


title: Spirited Away

text: Miyazaki based some of the buildings in the spirit world on the buildings in the real-life Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. He often visited the museum for inspiration while working on the film. Miyazaki had always been interested in the Pseudo-Western style buildings from the Meiji period that were available there. The museum made Miyazaki feel nostalgic, "especially when I stand here alone in the evening, near closing time, and the sun is setting – tears well up in my eyes." Another major inspiration was the , a traditional Japanese inn located in Yamagata Prefecture, famous for its exquisite architecture and ornamental features. While some guidebooks and articles claim that the old gold town of Jiufen in Taiwan served as an inspirational model for the film, Miyazaki has denied this. The Dōgo Onsen is also often said to be a key inspiration for the "Spirited Away" onsen/bathhouse.


title: Spirited Away

text: Toshio Suzuki, the producer of the film, also cites European inspirations and influences in the production of "Spirited Away". He specifically invokes the structure of the film as European-inspired due to Miyazaki's own influences by European films such as "The Snow Queen" and "The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep".


title: Spirited Away

text: The film score of "Spirited Away" was composed and conducted by Miyazaki's regular collaborator Joe Hisaishi, and performed by the New Japan Philharmonic. The soundtrack received awards at the 56th Mainichi Film Competition Award for Best Music, the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2001 Best Music Award in the Theater Movie category, and the 17th Japan Gold Disk Award for Animation Album of the Year. Later, Hisaishi added lyrics to "One Summer's Day" and named the new version of the song which was performed by Ayaka Hirahara.


title: Spirited Away

text: The closing song, was written and performed by Youmi Kimura, a composer and lyre-player from Osaka. The lyrics were written by Kimura's friend Wakako Kaku. The song was intended to be used for , a different Miyazaki film which was never released. In the special features of the Japanese DVD, Hayao Miyazaki explains how the song in fact inspired him to create "Spirited Away". The song itself would be recognized as Gold at the 43rd Japan Record Awards.


title: Spirited Away

text: John Lasseter, Pixar animator and a fan and friend of Miyazaki, would often sit with his staff and watch Miyazaki's work when encountering story problems. After seeing "Spirited Away" Lasseter was ecstatic. Upon hearing his reaction to the film, Disney CEO Michael Eisner asked Lasseter if he would be interested in introducing "Spirited Away" to an American audience. Lasseter obliged by agreeing to serve as the executive producer for the English adaptation. Following this, several others began to join the project: "Beauty and the Beast" co-director Kirk Wise and "Aladdin" co-producer Donald W. Ernst joined Lasseter as director and producer of "Spirited Away", respectively. Screenwriters Cindy Davis Hewitt and Donald H. Hewitt penned the English-language dialogue, which they wrote in order to match the characters' original Japanese-language lip movements.


title: Spirited Away

text: The cast of the film consists of Daveigh Chase, Jason Marsden, Suzanne Pleshette (in her final film role before her death in January 2008), Michael Chiklis, Lauren Holly, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers and John Ratzenberger (a Pixar regular). Advertising was limited, with "Spirited Away" being mentioned in a small scrolling section of the film section of "Disney.com"; Disney had sidelined their official website for "Spirited Away" and given the film a comparatively small promotional budget. Marc Hairston argues that this was a justified response to Studio Ghibli's retention of the merchandising rights to the film and characters, which limited Disney's ability to properly market the film.


title: Spirited Away

text: The major themes of "Spirited Away", heavily influenced by Japanese Shinto-Buddhist folklore, centre on the protagonist, Chihiro, and her liminal journey through the realm of spirits. The central location of the film is a Japanese bathhouse where a great variety of Japanese folklore creatures, including kami, come to bathe. Miyazaki cites the solstice rituals when villagers call forth their local kami and invite them into their baths. Chihiro also encounters kami of animals and plants. Miyazaki says of this:Chihiro's archetypal entrance into another world demarcates her status as one somewhere between child and adult. Chihiro also stands outside societal boundaries in the supernatural setting. The use of the word "kamikakushi" (literally 'hidden by gods') within the Japanese title, and its associated folklore, reinforces this liminal passage: "Kamikakushi is a verdict of 'social death' in this world, and coming back to this world from Kamikakushi meant 'social resurrection.'"


title: Spirited Away

text: Additional themes are expressed through No-Face, who reflects the characters who surround him, learning by example and taking the traits of whomever he consumes. This nature results in No-Face's monstrous rampage through the bathhouse. After Chihiro saves No-Face with the emetic dumpling, he becomes timid once more. At the end of the film, Zeniba decides to take care of No-Face so he can develop without the negative influence of the bathhouse.


title: Spirited Away

text: The film has been compared to Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass", as the stories have some elements in common such as being set in a fantasy world, the plots including a disturbance in logic and stability, and there being motifs such as food having metamorphic qualities; though developments and themes are not shared. Among other stories compared to "Spirited Away", "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is seen to be more closely linked thematically.


title: Spirited Away

text: Yubaba has many similarities to the Coachman from the 1940 film "Pinocchio", in the sense that she mutates humans into pigs in a similar way that the boys of Pleasure Island were mutated into donkeys. Upon gaining employment at the bathhouse, Yubaba's seizure of Chihiro's true name symbolically kills the child, who must then assume adulthood. She then undergoes a rite of passage according to the monomyth format; to recover continuity with her past, Chihiro must create a new identity.


title: Spirited Away

text: "Spirited Away" contains critical commentary on modern Japanese society concerning generational conflicts and environmental issues. Chihiro has been seen as a representation of the "shōjo", whose roles and ideology had changed dramatically since post-war Japan. Just as Chihiro seeks her past identity, Japan, in its anxiety over the economic downturn occurring during the release of the film in 2001, sought to reconnect to past values. In an interview, Miyazaki has commented on this nostalgic element for an old Japan.


title: Spirited Away

text: Accordingly, the film can be partly understood as an exploration of the effect of greediness and Western consumerism on traditional Japanese culture. For instance, Yubaba is stylistically unique within the bathhouse, wearing a Western dress and living among European décor and furnishings, in contrast with the minimalist Japanese style of her employees' quarters, representing the Western capitalist influence over Japan in its Meiji period and beyond. Along with its function within the ostensible coming of age theme, Yubaba's act of taking Chihiro's name and replacing it with Sen (an alternate reading of "chi", the first character in Chihiro's name, ) can be thought of as symbolic of capitalism's single-minded concern with value.


title: Spirited Away

text: The Meiji design of the abandoned theme park is the setting for Chihiro's parents' metamorphosis – the family arrives in an imported Audi car and the father wears a European-styled polo shirt, reassuring Chihiro that he has "credit cards and cash," before their morphing into literal consumerist pigs. Miyazaki has stated:


title: Spirited Away

text: The bathhouse of the spirits cannot be seen as a place free of ambiguity and darkness. Many of the employees are rude to Chihiro because she is human, and corruption is ever-present; it is a place of excess and greed, as depicted in the initial appearance of No-Face. In stark contrast to the simplicity of Chihiro's journey and transformation is the constantly chaotic carnival in the background.


title: Spirited Away

text: Commentators have often referred to environmental themes in the films of Miyazaki. In Spirited Away, two major instances of allusions to environmental issues have been noted. Pam Coats, for example, a Vice President of Walt Disney Feature Animation, describes Chihiro dealing with the "stink spirit", who, it turns out, was actually a river spirit, but it was so corrupted with filth that one couldn't tell what it was at first glance. It only became clean again when Chihiro pulled out a huge amount of trash, including car tires, garbage, and a bicycle. This alludes to human pollution of the environment, and how people can carelessly toss away things without thinking of the consequences and of where the trash will go.


title: Spirited Away

text: The second allusion is seen in Haku himself. Haku does not remember his name and lost his past, which is why he is stuck at the bathhouse. Eventually, Chihiro remembers that he used to be the spirit of the Kohaku River, which was destroyed and replaced with apartments. Because of humans' need for development, they destroyed a part of nature, causing Haku to lose his home and identity. This can be compared to deforestation and desertification; humans tear down nature, cause imbalance in the ecosystem, and demolish animals' homes to satisfy their want for more space (housing, malls, stores, etc.) but do not think about how it can affect other living things.


title: Spirited Away

text: "Spirited Away" was released theatrically in Japan on 20 July 2001 by distributor Toho. It grossed a record ¥1.6 billion ($13.1 million) in its first three days, beating the previous record set by "Princess Mononoke". It was number one at the Japanese box office for its first eleven weeks and spent 16 weeks there in total. After 22 weeks of release and after grossing $224 million in Japan, it started its international release, opening in Hong Kong on 13 December 2001. It was the first film that had grossed more than $200 million at the worldwide box office excluding the United States. It went on to gross ¥30.4 billion to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. It also set the all-time attendance record in Japan, surpassing the 16.8 million tickets sold by "Titanic". Its gross at the Japanese box office has since increased to , .


title: Spirited Away

text: In February 2002, Wild Bunch, an international sales company that had recently span-off from its former parent StudioCanal, picked up the international sale rights for the film outside of Asia and France. The company would then on-sell it to independent distributors across the world. On April 13, 2002, The Walt Disney Company acquired the Taiwanese, Singapore, Hong Kong, French and North American sale rights to the film, alongside Japanese Home Media rights.