I’m an Anthony Joshua lookalike and can make £16,000 a booking but it’s men who pay more attention to me than women

LEWIS Sylvester has made a career of being an Anthony Joshua lookalike and body double while raking in up to £16,000 per booking.

The 38-year-old from Birmingham, who is also a banker, was told by a former boss he looked like the ex-boxing champion and was urged to sign up with a lookalike agency five years ago.

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He’s since appeared alongside the real AJ – as his body double in high profile ads for Lynx, Under Armor and more.

Despite looking like Adonis Joshua, a modern athletic pin-up, Lewis revealed he gets more male attention when he’s out and about.

“I used to work at Jaguar Land Rover and my boss there always said I looked like AJ,” Lewis told SunSport.

“He told me one day that I had to come to work the next day and tell him I’d signed up for an agency.

“So I went online, googled ‘lookalikes’ and found the Lookalikes Agency and they managed to get me a job right away.

Lewis has since starred as AJ’s body double in commercials for brands including Lynx, William Hill, Sky, Nigerian phone company Glo and Under Armour.

At 6ft 7in tall, he is slightly taller than the original. And admittedly not that muscular.

But he takes on an important role before AJ arrives on set.

“In the ad, I wore the clothes that he would wear and they would line things up around me and make sure everything fit and looked good in that environment,” Lewis said.

“They’ll ask me to do a few chores and see if it’s comfortable, and it really was.

“You just have to stand around for hours while everyone else is working with you.”

AJ and Lewis have met several times and the heavyweight star can’t believe how much his wrestler looks like him.

“He always seems a little crazy about the whole thing when we meet,” Lewis said.

“He laughs at it and says, ‘From a distance or a side profile, it’s crazy how much you really look like me.’

It means Lewis has a lot of work as a double – he gets hired for bachelorette parties and parties.

However, not all bookings are as glamorous as the body duplication.

“I was asked to jump out of a cake for a girls bachelorette party. I declined. It was so cheesy,” laughed Lewis.

“But a job I did at a venue in Leicester required me to sit around as part of a job and have women stretch me out and take pictures with me. That was horrible!”

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To keep his body toned, AJ works out at the gym for hours every day.

Luckily for Lewis, he doesn’t have to work too hard on his fitness.

“I don’t go to the gym regularly anymore. Between jobs, I’ll work out for a few weeks beforehand – just to get in a bit of shape.

“I’m pretty skinny anyway, so there’s not much to lose in terms of fat.

“I do push-ups every day and try to stay in pretty good shape. I don’t want to embarrass AJ.”

A marketer’s dream, Joshua is gifted with good looks and talent.

This means that he has many female admirers and fans. But Lewis joked that he’s not so lucky with the opposite sex.

He said: “I have more conversations with men when I’m out. They are more impressed by the comparison than women.

“It wouldn’t be what you expect. But guys always come up to me and say, ‘Has anyone ever told you you look like…’

“That’s all I get.”

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When Lewis isn’t booked as an AJ lookalike, he’s doing his job.

“I work for banks. I do commissioned work as a financial advisor,” he said.

“It’s pretty mundane, so booking an AJ job makes life more exciting.”

All in all, it looks like AJ paid well for Lewis.

He revealed: “There have been jobs where I’ve made just over £200 and there have been others where I’ve made £16,000.”

And he found an unlikely fan in AJ rival Oleksandr Usyk.

After filming a commercial in Saudi Arabia to promote the upcoming fight in Jeddah, the Ukrainian champion asked for a photo with the body double – struck by his resemblance.

“A member of his team called me to take a picture with him,” Lewis explained.

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“He asked if I boxed but I told him I was a banker, which I think shocked him.

“Usyk was a really nice guy but I felt like I was cheating on AJ. That’s why I didn’t post it on Instagram!”

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