Boxing superstar Anthony Joshua is quitting the UK to move to Dubai – even though the desert city is now in a warzone with thousands of Britons desperate to get out, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The former heavyweight world champion, 36, has formally confirmed he will now be resident in the United Arab Emirates despite it currently coming under nightly attack from Iranian suicide drones.
Joshua, who was born in Watford to Nigerian parents, won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and has since been awarded OBE and MBE honours, but is now quitting his home country.
The surprise move by “AJ”- as he is known to fans – is revealed in the small print of paperwork he filed on Friday for his £150 million business empire, in which he is legally required to state which country he lives in.
And extraordinarily, the documentation shows that Joshua has pressed ahead with his decision to change his residential status despite the war between the USA, Israel and Iran, which has seen neighbouring UAE come under sustained attack.
As well as the weather and facilities, Dubai is popular with the wealthy because there is no income tax there.
Joshua would have been liable to pay UK tax on his dividend payment of £10.1 million in 2024 and £6.3 million in 2023.
His company, Sparta Promotions, also reported profits of £20.396 million and paid £6.65 million in UK tax in 2024.
Joshua confirmed the decision in the same week that former UK footballer Rio Ferdinand and his wife, Kate, spoke about what it’s like to live in Dubai during a missile attack.
Those attacks have seen thousands of Britons living or simply visiting Dubai when the war broke out left desperate to get out – with some paying as much as £100,000 to secure private jet evacuation.
Filings for two of Joshua’s companies, Sparta Promotions Limited and 258 Investments Limited, both show the formal change in where he will reside from now on.
Joshua has long been a regular visitor to Dubai, where he uses the renowned sporting facilities for training, as well as for promotional work for the brands he represents and for holidays.
The most spectacular stunt in this vein came in 2017 when he undertook a training sparring session on the helipad of the famous sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel – a 90-foot-wide landing platform suspended 700 feet above the sea.
He visited the city late last year, dining out with boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, and again last month when he had training sessions with MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The striking decision to shift base to Dubai follows the tragic road accident in Nigeria last year, in which his two close friends, personal trainer Kevin ‘Latz’ Ayodele and long-time therapist Sina Ghami, were killed.
Joshua has been in recovery ever since the ordeal and recently posted pictures of rehab work on his ribs via Snapchat.
He captioned the post: “Rehabilitation protocol. When you go through certain things, you realise that you are stronger than you think you are.”
The move makes Joshua the latest high-profile wealthy Briton to be based overseas, following the likes of Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou: who both live in Monaco, and Pimlico Plumbers tycoon Charlie Mullins, who is in Marbella.
