By 
It's always the same story with Anthony Joshua.
It begins on a Watford council estate where he lived with his mother and worked as a bricklayer. There's a pit-stop at his arrest for drug possession while in the GB tracksuit and then straight on to the world heavyweight title happy ending. A measured and modest, humble and handsome fighter who discovered discipline and was saved from himself.
It's an irresistible Bad Boy Done Good narrative, but is it just the one we want to hear? "I think there's more to me," he laughs, arching his back into the plastic brown sofa he's reclined on. "But it's just a story to tell," he says, then after a theatrical pause: "you need a story."
We meet at a studio in Haggerston where Joshua's spent the day leaping and lunging around a dark room where cold water drips from the ceiling and sand is scattered across the floor. Disappointingly, Joshua doesn't ordinarily demand a gym out of a Rocky training montage - he's only here to promote video game, Destiny 2. "I like to think I'm a Titan whose weapon is his fists," he laughs.
Makes sense. With whisky barrel biceps and hands like dinner plates - not to mention a belt or two - Joshua is an obvious choice to play a juggernaut, though he stays supine on the sofa throughout our chat, leaving his 6ft5 stature to the imagination.
When we are first introduced he looks up bashfully from his phone, which is flashing with alarming frequency. "I've been trying to put it down for a few hours and actually switch off," he says. "Otherwise it can be the first thing you wake up to and last thing you go to bed with." With nearly five million people following him on Instagram, it's no doubt a stressful companion to spend the day with.
Joshua's evolution from amateur athlete to household name is a fairytale story. After winning gold on home soil at the London 2012 Olympics he turned professional the following year and remained undefeated for 19 fights, earning the World Heavyweight Belt in 2016.
In April of this year he entered the annals of the sport after staging a great escape, from lying flat on his back in the fifth round against Wladimir Klitschko, by the sixth, gathering his strength and whispering to his rival, "If you let me get through this round, I'm gonna f*** you up".
He kept his word, and by the eleventh had passed his biggest test as a fighter. In a throng of 90,000 people - the largest boxing audience in Britain since 1934 – Joshua become the unified world heavyweight champion claiming the vacant WBA (Super) and IBO titles with a technical KO.
"Never forget it's a fine line between winning and losing," he says of the bout. "I always remember the loser and what they're going through. They leave [the ring] first and you barely see them. I'm there for an hour lapping it up."
It's these kind of thoughtful and modest comments that present Joshua as a different breed of boxer. He isn't linked to a roster Victoria's Secret models, nor does he needlessly mouth off about rivals. He embraces his opponents after defeating them. Once he posted a pictures of himself in a mosque to promote religious tolerance. He readily admits to me he nearly cried when he lost the World Championship Finals in 2011: "I remember that day. That hurt, losing."
It's a far cry from the Fuck You Suit and chair-hurling of Conor McGregor or Floyd Mayweather's obsessive documenting of his mansions and piles of cash: the pair whose gaudy clash earlier this year was aptly termed "The fleece of the century".
No, Joshua is more concerned with a creating something that lasts - a brand that people want to buy into, not a brute you love to hate. The AJ brand is a PR's dream with a level-headed, disciplined athlete at the centre of it. He even puts motivational YouTube videos on in the morning to put him in the right mind-set. Honestly, ask him.
"It's good," he says, when asked what he makes of the public perception of him. "I don't like to call myself a role model because that's something you have to live up to. But I can relate to people from different backgrounds and I understand what it's like to be on the other side. I wasn't well educated so I understand people who are finding it hard to get opportunities."
His ambitions for when he hangs up his gloves are equally grounded. "I'll probably go back to college," he says. "I don't think I'll be at the opening of an envelope and turning up to like…" he stops himself and smiles, realising what he's about to pass up. "Well you gotta have a few parties," he laughs. "I can never turn down a good party."
Boxing may require extreme discipline and focus, but Joshua's concentration span in conversation is endearingly short. "What are you reading? Do you like football?" He answers in response to those very questions.
Hang on, he wants to show me his biggest fashion mistake. "When you're big you have to buy something that fits people that are wider, so they make it longer," he explains. "Here he is!" He holds up photo of him in a grey suit which hangs sadly off him like elephant skin. "Ahahah! BOOSH! Ok, sorry, back to the interview."
Despite the cacophony of criticism and praise in the social media echo chamber, Joshua largely avoids the boxing cliché of a livewire who lives for trash talk. "I'm not here to put anyone down," he says. Rumours continue to swirl about a match between him and Deontay Wilder, but he doesn't get carried away. "People ask about his performance and I could say a million things that I've heard but I just say: you know what, I respect him."
He's wise to the tactic of making claims for the press to run wild with. "It's just a marketing ploy. If I was a runner and wanted to be noticed, I'd say 'I can run faster than Usain Bolt'. They're [other boxers] just attaching themselves to a name to get noticed."
"Clean hearts win," he tells me proudly towards the end of our chat. You leave wondering if Joshua might be the most level-headed man ever to knock people out for money.
Until two days later when he tweets at Tyson Fury: "Get fit you fat fuck."
Perhaps he woke up that morning and the YouTube montage wouldn't load. Or maybe he just forgot the story he was supposed to be telling. Perhaps he wanted a new twist to the tale.
Like the long list of opponents hoping to knock him off his perch, he's keeping us on our toes, telling the story of a boy who started on the wrong side of the tracks and ended up a world champion. Then reminding us he's only human after all.
Destiny 2 free trial is available across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC from Tuesday, 28 November
