Through Adam Baskin: Anthony Joshua and his new coach Robert Garcia were at odds throughout camp for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, according to Gareth A. Davies.
Garcia was signed as a replacement for Joshua’s longtime trainer Rob McCracken with the idea of toughening AJ up and making him more aggressive for the rematch against Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs).
Gareth doesn’t say what the problem was between Joshua and Robert, but it could be that the aggressive approach the American coach is trying to teach Joshua at a training camp could be a bit too much.
What Robert is attempting is a cram session, giving Joshua a ton of new things in a short span of eight weeks, hoping he’ll remember enough of it to make him successful against the unified heavyweight champion on Saturday to use usyk.
“I heard they didn’t agree the whole time,” Gareth A. Davies told “Behind The Gloves” of Anthony Joshua and his new coach, Robert Garcia.
“It’s a new relationship. In the second relationship, you work things through. This is all really good news for me. You worked on his confidence. Change the momentum from the first fight because trying to box Usyk was the wrong game plan.
“Be aggressive, be dirty, push him around, close the room, let go of your hands but obviously with educated pressure. Usyk knows what Joshua will do. He’ll let go of his hands a little more and be more physical with him.
“He’s not going to stand up and try to stab him and close the space that way. Usyk faces off against an impressive Adonis who has very heavy hands, a bigger, heavier and stronger man.
“So he’s preparing for that, and I think he might want to end the fight as well and fight fire with fire. He knows he has the tricky skills to do it. He must be strong.
“Maybe he doesn’t want to do 12 laps this time. I don’t think he’s 20kg heavier but he certainly looks bigger and stronger all around the torso,” Davies said of Usyk.
