By Adam Baskin: Anthony Joshua and his new trainer Robert Garcia haven’t been seeing “eye to eye” during the entire camp for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, according to Gareth A. Davies.
Garcia has been brought in as the replacement for Joshua’s long-time coach Rob McCracken with the idea of toughening AJ up, and making him more aggressive for the rematch with Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs).
Gareth isn’t saying what the problem has been between Joshua and Robert, but it could be that the aggressive approach that the American trainer is attempting to teach Joshua in one training camp might be a little too much.
What Robert is attempting to do is a cram session in giving Joshua a ton of new things in a short eight-week period, hoping that he’ll remember enough of them to successfully utilize on Saturday against the unified heavyweight champion Usyk.
“I’ve heard they haven’t seen eye to eye the whole time,” said Gareth A Davies to Behind The Gloves about Anthony Joshua and his new trainer Robert Garcia.
“It’s a new relationship. In the second relationship, you’re working through things. That’s all really good news for me. They have been working on his confidence. Change the momentum from the first fight because it was the wrong game plan to try and box Usyk.
“Be aggressive, be dirty, push him around, close down the space, let your hands go, but obviously with educated pressure. Usyk knows what Joshua is going to do. He’s going to let his hands go a bit more and be more physical with him.
“He’s not going to stand off and try and jab him and close the space in that way. Usyk is up against a formidable Adonis, who has very heavy hands, a bigger, heavier, stronger man.
“So, he’s preparing for that, and I think he’s wanting to maybe finishing the fight as well and fight fire with fire. He knows he’s got the tricky skills to do it. He needs to be strong in there.
“Maybe he doesn’t want to go 12 rounds this time. I don’t buy he’s 20 kilos heavier, but he certainly looks thicker around the torso and stronger,” said Davies about Usyk.
