Anthony Joshua set to become world's first billionaire boxer

Good looking, highly intelligent, sensitive and softly spoken, Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua is a very different type of professional boxer.

The 27-year-old former Olympic champion, who burst onto the scene at London 2012, doesn't overturn tables in press conferences, or indulge in 'trash talk' to denigrate opponents.

Neither does he surround himself with a dodgy entourage, throw banknotes around strip clubs, or live in an obnoxious mansion.

The squeaky-clean heavyweight, who still lives with his mother, is nonetheless at the top of his game.

With even more millions already flowing in from blue-chip endorsement deals he has struck — a measure of Anthony Joshua's potential ability to transcend boxing — some believe this young man can become not only Britain's most famous sportsman, but also the world's first billionaire athlete.

So who exactly is this man mountain? And how did he make it from the mean streets of Watford to the summit of professional sport?

He grew up on the gritty Meriden Estate in Watford, one of four children of his mother Yeta

Home is a tiny former council flat in Golders Green, North London, which Anthony co-owns with his mother.

It was one of his first big purchases after turning professional: he bought it in November 2013, paying £174,000 in cash. The duo share their cosy property with a dog, Roxy, and a huge television, which he uses to play video games during down-time.

Anthony is fiercely protective of Yeta, a petite 51-year-old social worker, who came to the UK from Nigeria in the Eighties.

He recently gave her a new Range Rover so she didn't 'get ripped off' by a disreputable car dealer, and prevents her from attending his bouts, or even watching them on TV.

'I don't really let my mum come to my fights,' he explained recently. 'I've banned her. It's not a place where you want to see your kid. I would rather she not be there.'