HOUSTON (NEXSTAR) — It starts with a powerful story Joshua Edwards’ father likes to tell about how he says he knew his son would become an Olympian one day.
“I put my hands on [his mother’s] stomach, and I prayed and asked God for direction for his life,” Henry Edwards, Joshua’s father said. “I heard God tell me he was a fighter in her stomach…I thought it was some type of some symbolic thing, but he was actually a fighter.”
Some 23-odd years later, Joshua would go on to win his match at the 2023 Pan-American Games, qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
This journey, filled with highs and lows, now reveals itself to be bigger than just Joshua and what he’s gone through to get to where he is today.
“I’m from the south side of Houston,” Joshua said. “It’s a pretty rough neighborhood.”
He’s his gym’s first-ever Olympian. It’s taken grit, heart and having people in his corner pushing him to reach his full potential.
“I was extremely strict, extremely mean,” Joshua’s coach, Melvin Malone said. “A lot of one-on-one drills, how to avoid the first punch, hit new and how to do angles, slip punches, move.”
It’s not surprising Joshua fell in love with the sport. He was exposed to it at an early age. In fact, his father was a boxer, too, and even trained at Muhammad Ali’s gym, according to Edwards.
“I bought him gloves, and I let him play,” Edwards said. “Literally, if he got in trouble in school, I make him do like 5-600 pushups.”
Years, and a major injury and surgery later, and even falling out of love with the sport for a time, Joshua says it feels surreal to see his dreams turned into a reality.
And now, Joshua is inspiring those around him on his journey to Paris and beyond.
“I was talking to my barber…he told me he wanted to get a big poster of me and put it in the barbershop so the kids can see,” Joshua said. “I know I have the city on my back.”
