During his flirtatious interview with the presenter following his victory against Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night, Anthony Joshua referred to Laura Woods as his “dream date.”

AJ defeated Franklin via unanimous decision, earning his first win since 2020 despite AJ’s lackluster effort. The final score was 118-111, 117-111, 117-111 in his favor.

‘I think it’s blossomed brilliantly, exactly like you,’ the two-time world champion said in response to Woods’ question on IFL TV, indicating that he was in a happy mood following the battle. The 35-year-old then inquired about the number of times he had been hit on the head.

When asked about his ideal date later in the interview, Joshua said, “you.” Woods punched the air and exclaimed, “This is perfect!”

Following the Chelsea midfielder’s recent talkSPORT interview in which he mentioned Woods as his ideal crush, AJ joked that Ruben Loftus-Cheek had ‘beaten him to it’.

Joshua questioned, “Are you taken?” and both parties answered that they were single, but the host delivered a blow to Joshua worse than Franklin could handle when she said she was “too focused on work” to date.

Joshua has achieved a similar ascent to the top of the sports media as Woods did, thanks to his remarkable 25 victories out of 28 in his professional career.

The pair are hugely successful in their respective careers, and their recent interview over the weekend showcased that they get along just fine.

In what can only be described as a shamelessly flirty interview, how do the big names in sport square up to one another… and could they be the perfect sparring partners?

LAURA WOODS

Laura Woods was born on July 2, 1987 in Dagenham, east London, and grew up in Surrey with her two parents, Michelle and Steve, as well as her two older brothers Paul and Luke. She went on to study print journalism at Kingston University.

After completing her studies, in 2009 she bagged a job at Sky Sports where she was a runner, the beginning of her career to become the face of many sporting programmes.

She became a Sky Sports editorial assistant, then assistant producer, associate producer and finally a producer.

Laura went from behind the camera to presenting in front of it when she started doing the broadcaster’s behind-the-scenes interviews for Darts coverage on their YouTube channel.

She then got a job on Sky’s Game Changers, a Saturday morning children’s show.

Anthony Joshua called Laura Woods (pictured) his ‘dream date’ in a flirty interview with the presenter after his win over Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night

Laura Woods was born on July 2, 1987 in Dagenham, east London, and grew up in Surrey with her two parents, Michelle and Steve, as well as her two older brothers Paul and Luke. She went on to study print journalism at Kingston University (pictured in October last year)

After completing her studies, in 2009 she bagged a job at Sky Sports where she was a runner, the beginning of her career to become the face of many sporting programmes. Just two years later Laura was a pitch side reporter (pictured in 2019) on Super Sunday, where she was often alongside sports pundit and former Manchester United footballer Gary Neville

Dating history

Having jumped from one incredible job to another, Laura has had little time to put focus into her personal life and romantic relationships.

Laura’s only confirmed ex-boyfriend is former England rugby player Alex Corbisiero, who she dated for eight years.

Speaking to The Sun in June 2020, Laura detailed: ‘My last relationship was eight years and I was nearing 30 when we broke up. It was my decision – it was the right one and I’ve never regretted it.

‘We’d lived in each other’s pockets and breaking up with him felt like coming up for air. The next thing for us was probably marriage and having kids. And I do want that one day – I love being in love and I love kids. But I’ve prioritised work because I love that too and my ambitions are important to me.’

She added that she ‘won’t settle’ and she will ‘wait for the right guy’, but also admitted that she ‘puts work first too much’, which gets in the way of her love life.

Laura continued: ‘I don’t use internet dating sites. I hate being set up and I’m quite fussy – if I’m not in control I don’t like it! I’d rather meet someone organically in the pub. I don’t believe in forcing anything. I’ll know when it happens and until then it’s not an area of my life I feel like I’m missing out on.’

Despite giving most of her time and energy to bettering her career, Woods has definitely not been short of dating offers.

It just takes a quick scroll through her social media profiles to see she is inundated with complimentary comments from followers who offer kind words to her gorgeous selfies and well wishes to mentions of her latest job roles.

Laura’s presence on the football pitch has also led her to being noticed by some of the Premier League’s finest talent. In recent weeks, Laura was hosting her regular TalkSport breakfast show when she spoke to Chelsea and England midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek (pictured) during a Q&A session

Last December, Laura brutally rejected Love Island star Charlie Brake after he asked her out on Twitter. Charlie asked her out for dinner, with Laura politely declining by saying: ‘I’m not hungry but thank you’

Famous knockouts

Laura’s presence on the football pitch has also led her to being noticed by some of the Premier League’s finest talent.

In recent weeks, Laura was hosting her regular TalkSport breakfast show when she spoke to Chelsea and England midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek during a Q&A session.

She cheekily asked the football star who is celebrity crush was, only for Loftus-Cheek to respond: ‘Laura Woods!’

Laura seemed pretty pleased with his quick reply, with the radio host quipping: ‘An exceptional answer! It’s been an absolute pleasure and I’ll get your number later!’

Last December, Laura brutally rejected Love Island star Charlie Brake after he asked her out on Twitter.

The broadcaster was in high spirits after her beloved Arsenal beat West Ham 3-1 and took to Twitter to show her love for one player in particular.

Laura initially tweeted to her 662k followers at full-time on Boxing Day: ‘Ben White is magic’. Charlie then slid into the replies by responding: ‘You’re magic,’ complete with a wand emoji.

She responded with three laughing emojis and: ‘Thank you Charlie.’

Charlie then asked her out for dinner, with Laura politely declining by saying: ‘I’m not hungry but thank you’.

Fans were left in stitches on the social media sit after Laura publicly shot him down and they got involved in the comments section.

The latest in Laura’s romantic advances has been with boxing heavyweight legend Anthony Joshua, whom she interviewed at the weekend after his win against Jermaine Franklin

Laura Woods asked Anthony Joshua who his dream date would be in a post-fight interview

The heavyweight boxer inspired a celebration from the talkSPORT presenter after saying ‘you’

The latest in Laura’s romantic advances has been with boxing heavyweight legend Anthony Joshua, whom she interviewed at the weekend after his win against Jermaine Franklin.