Anthony Joshua is expected to return to the ring in 2023 but there are concerns over his comeback already. The 33-year-old British heavyweight boxer is said to have split with his trainer Robert Garcia and is reportedly building a new team in the United States.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The is not the first time AJ has sacked his team. He split from his long-term trainer Rob McCracken following his first defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua’s bout with Usyk took place on 25 September 2021 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. AJ went into the fight feeling confident he could win but the Ukrainian boxer won by unanimous decision.
Anthony Joshua has reportedly split from his trainer Robert Garcia ahead of his return
AJ immediately exercised the rematch clause in his contract and embarked on a Stateside tour to find himself a new coaching team following the humbling defeat.
He spent time with Virgil Hunter, Ronnie Shields and Eddy Reynoso but decided to partner with Garcia – who is a highly-decorated Mexican-American coach with a catalogue of world champions on his CV.
Joshua had high hopes for his partnership with Garcia but it seemed as though the pair never really clicked. The 33-year-old British boxer came up short in his rematch with Usyk – losing via split decision in Saudi Arabia.
Eddie Hearn (right) has announced that Joshua will return to boxing in the spring
Emotions were evidently running high after the fight as Joshua threw two of Usyk’s belts out of the ring and onto the floor. He then headed for his changing room before storming back to shake Usyk’s hand and steal the microphone.
He went on an expletive-filled rant, discussing the fight, his career and the crisis in Ukraine. Joshua also led the sell-out crowd in Jeddah through ‘three cheers for Usyk’ before highlighting his astonishment at Ukrainian fighters being able to produce title-winning performances during the war in his home country.
Concerns over Joshua’s mental health mounted after his outburst – with the likes of Tony Bellew jumping to his defence.
Shortly after the incident, Joshua revealed he would be taking some time away from boxing and told his fans he would return to the ring in 2023.
Hearn also revealed Joshua split with coach Garcia (right of AJ) and is in search of a new team
But Joshua failed to mention he would be returning to the canvas with a completely new coaching team in his corner.
Hearn confirmed the news when speaking to Behind The Gloves: ‘No, he is good. He is out in America at the moment working on his new team.
‘He is getting that together and then we will get an opponent sorted and the date is pretty much locked in. It is pretty much sorted and we are looking forward to seeing him return.’
WHY IS JOSHUA SPLITTING FROM GARCIA SO SOON INTO THEIR RELATIONSHIP?
Joshua made it clear he wanted to be a ‘free spirit’ and that he didn’t want to be ‘locked down’ with the same coach for another ’11 years’.
He said last month: ‘I said to Robert and the team as well, I want to be a free spirit. I locked myself down for 11 years with one coach and now I just feel like I just want to learn as much as possible. Because, honestly, if you know me closely, what it is is, it’s not the trainer, it’s about the fighter, what he has up here [in your head].
‘I feel like I’m in a position where I’m able to work with anyone. So who knows what will happen next year? So, in terms of Robert Garcia, thank you for asking. I respect him a lot. He’s a really good man, a really good trainer. Would I work with him again? Yeah, I would.’
Joshua made it clear he wanted to be a ‘free spirit’ and that he didn’t want to be ‘locked down’
DID JOSHUA AND GARCIA EVER SEE EYE-TO-EYE?
AJ is said to have had his fair share of differences with Garcia and the pair did not always see ‘eye to eye’ in the build-up to the Usyk II fight.
Speaking to Behind The Gloves about AJ’s relationship with Garcia, reporter Gareth A. Davies said: ‘I’ve heard they haven’t seen eye to eye the whole time.
‘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.
Joshua is said to have had a rocky relationship with his trainer, according to reports
‘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.’
DID GARCIA GET ON THE BAD SIDE OF AJ FOLLOWING THE UYSK DEFEAT?
Joshua accused Garcia of ‘revealing his weakness’ following of his rematch with Usyk in August 2022.
Garcia was quoted saying: ‘During that ninth round, in the corner [we] were telling ourselves we had the fight.
‘Oleksandr Usyk came back stronger. I’ve even thought in these last few days that it was Joshua who mentally defeated himself.
‘Joshua was mentally defeated since round 10 or 11. Round 10 was a big one for Usyk. That changed the whole fight, and mentally we were defeated.’
Joshua accused Garcia of ‘revealing his weakness’ following of his rematch with Usyk
Garcia defended his comments when speaking to ESNews, saying: ‘I spoke to a Spanish reporter that I know so I gave him a little interview, but from Spanish translated to English, they make it seem like, “Oh, Robert is talking s***”, pretty much.
‘I wouldn’t say that about my fighters, man. I’ve never done it before and I never will. The headline is, “Robert says Anthony mentally beat himself” but I never said that.
‘I said that Usyk after being hurt really bad in the ninth he came in the 10th like that never happened, he came strong which you’ve got to applaud that.
‘So that’s not saying “oh, Anthony was beat mentally”. Usyk came back strong and dominated those three rounds.
‘I said, “Look, Usyk being the winner, the champion and Anthony grabbing the belts that’s disrespecting the champion”.
‘But Anthony was frustrated. F*** he hates to lose. He came back and apologised and everything was good.’
Joshua suffered his second straight defeat to the Ukrainian boxer (above) in August 2022
DID AJ EVEN WANT GARCIA IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Joshua admitted to giving Angel Fernandez the responsibility of picking his new trainer ahead of the Usyk rematch.
Joshua went into the rematch with a new coaching team after parting ways with McCracken- who helped guide him to an Olympic gold medal and become the unified heavyweight title holder of the world twice.
Speaking about his decision to partner with Garcia, Joshua told Behind The Gloves: ‘He’s [Garcia] experienced, he’s trained a lot of fighters before. He gets you throwing punches, he knows the big stage and that kind of stuff.
Joshua admitted to giving Angel Fernandez the responsibility of picking his new trainer
‘Away from what I thought of Garcia, I rate all the trainers I went to see including him. I said to Angel, my head coach in London, “Can you choose who you want to work with”.
‘Angel has to be comfortable working with Garcia and Garcia has to be comfortable working with Angel in order for them to give me the best.
‘I just can’t think Garcia is good but Angel doesn’t like him and I’m trying to make that relationship work. Those two get along well and it’s worked really well.’
Joshua continued: ‘They have to got to do strategic planning, sparring reviews when they are watching it.
‘They’ve got to sit down a lot together so I thought it’s important for Angel to make the decision of who he wants to work with.
‘Angel decided Garcia was good and I agreed, I said ‘yeah man, I’m down for that’ and it’s been a good relationship.’
WHO COULD JOSHUA LINK-UP WITH NEXT?
AJ’s previous tour of the US saw him visit several candidates, including Canelo Alvarez’s coach Eddy Reynoso and Joshua Buatsi’s coach Virgil Hunter.
He is expected to visit the same trainers this time around and has already been pictured working with Hunter in Los Angeles.
AJ could also link-up with boxing legend Roy Jones Jr – who has worked with Chris Eubank Jr for his recent fights, though he wasn’t in the equation for his cancelled bout against Conor Benn.
The 53-year-old discussed a potential partnership with AJ on Thursday last week. He told talkSPORT: ‘He’s not [looking to tie himself down], he’s not. He’s come to talk to me, too, so I’ll be one of those guys talking to him and we’ll see what happens.
‘We spoke the other day, so we’re gonna talk. He’s going to come to the gym and see what we do. If it works out well, that’ll be it. If it don’t, he can go on and find a better trainer.’
Take a look at the coaches AJ had been linked with in 2021 here.
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