Former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua is quitting the United Kingdom and moving to Dubai, even as the desert city is caught in the web of renewed hostility in the Middle East amid the Iran-Israel war.
The Boxing sensationformal confirmation of the United Arab Emirates as his new home came as many of his compatriots who had opted to relocate to the UAE are now scrambling to get out as Tehran intensifies its drone and missile attacks.
Joshua, 36, 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.
According to the dailymail.co.uk, the unexpected move by “AJ”- as he is fondly referred to by fans – is disclosed in the details 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.
The documentation revealed that Joshua has chosen to forge ahead with his decision to change his residential address despite the war between the USA, Israel and Iran, which has escalated into a regional war which has seen neighbouring UAE come under sustained attack.
Aside from its weather and World class infrastructure, Dubai has become favourite destination for the influential and affluent figures who want to escape the cutthroat taxes of many develop nations in the West and North America as Dubai does not have income tax.
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 amid the ongoing war.
Those attacks have seen thousands of Britons living or simply visiting Dubai when the war broke out scrambling 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 decision to shift base to Dubai came months after 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 tragedy 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.