Anthony Joshua: Success has 100 fathers and boxer is now a cousin to everyone in Sagamu

Due to Anthony Joshua's successes, everyone in Sagamu, his parents' hometown identifies with him.

John F. Kennedy once said “victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan,” a maxim that has become very popular.

It made more sense to me after I watched thousands of Sagamu watch with keen interest the fight between Anthony Joshua and Carlos Takam on Saturday, October 28.

 

Pulse Sports were in Sagamu back in April just immediately after Joshua’s famous win against Wladimir Klitschko. Videos and photos of Sagamu indigenes watching the match and celebrating Joshua’s win went viral on social media.

So we headed to Sagamu to explore Joshua’s Nigerian roots for a documentary which you can watch at the end of this article.

For the documentary, we interviewed several members of his extended family, his great-grand uncles, cousins, a traditional ruler and anyone we could find with a connection to the Joshua family in Sagamu.

 

Six months later, we returned to Sagamu on the day of his fight against Takam to find out that Joshua is now a cousin to everyone in the town.

For the fight against Klitschko in April, not less than a hundred people watched the bout at a viewing party organised by the Sagamu Youth Association.

But six months later, the Anthony Joshua bug had caught almost everyone in Sagamu. With his parents being from the Ogun State town, a Joshua fight day has become a big event in the town, everyone was rapt by the boxer. 

Huge projectors were set up at a memorial hall (Babajosh Memorial Hall) built in honour of his great-grandfather, Adebambo Joshua.

 

Hours before the fight, Sagamu indigenes gathered in their hundreds were entertained by dancers, music and free drinks supplied by a beer brand.

For the fight proper, the crowd grew from over a hundred to more than 2000 people. It was madness.

The chock-full hall was sealed off and a crowd twice as big as the one inside converged to watch on a screen outside.

ALSO READ: Anthony Joshua broke his nose in the fight against Takam

They all impatiently watched the undercard fights, waiting for their own man, Joshua.

All of his appearances even before his fight was greeted with huge cheers.  When he made his entrance to the ring with Wizkid’s Ojuelegba, they all lost it.

It was a surreal sight.

Every punch, dodge and point won by Joshua was cheered very loudly by the exuberant crowd. Even a very important Super Eagles match could not have drawn this kind of reaction from the people of Sagamu.

 

They shouted, cheered and cried tears of joy when he won, but why is Anthony Joshua so loved in Sagamu?

Everyone we interviewed from street hawkers to Okada riders to taxi men were all related to Joshua.

 

Teenagers, youths, adults and septuagenarians, everyone had a connection to the world heavyweight champion. 

That’s success and so John F. Kennedy was right, it has 100 fathers and like we found out in Sagamu, even more.