Anthony Joshua on the Haringey Box Cup

ONE of the biggest amateur boxing tournaments in Europe, the Haringey Box Cup, kicks off this Friday (June 17) at Alexandra Palace. The competition attracts around 400 boxers for three days of action from Britain and overseas. Previous winners have included world champion Anthony Joshua, Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion Nicola Adams, plus Ireland’s 2012 Olympic champion Katie Taylor.

Anthony Joshua, the 2012 Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist and current IBF world heavyweight champion described how the competition helped his development. “The Haringey Box Cup is so important for your development as an amateur. I was lucky enough to win it twice and it gave me a taster of what the big international tournaments are like; you have to make weight every day, you have to box up to three times in three days, often against a variety of styles and in front of a big crowd. It’s a true representation of the types of competitions you’ll be experiencing at a later stage of your career and an experience you’d be hard pushed to replicate at the earlier stages of your career,” he said.