It looks like Anthony Joshua may be in the market for a new coach just over two months after working with Robert Garcia in his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua and Garcia, who works out of California with the likes of José Ramírez and Jesse Rodriguez, linked up after ‘AJ’ toured the States in search of a replacement for longterm mentor and Team GB coach, Robert McCracken. He settled on Garcia and the general consensus was that his second performance against Usyk, whilst still a defeat, showed improvements.
Now, as reported by Sporting News, it seems the Watford heavyweight’s camp is up in the air once more, and that’s how he likes it.
“So in terms of Robert Garcia, thank you for asking. I respect him a lot. He’s a really good man, really good trainer. Will I work with him again? Yeah I would, but what I’ve said to Robert and the team as well is that I want to be a free spirit. You know, 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.”
“Honestly, if you know me closely, which a lot of the viewers probably don’t, what it is is it’s not the trainer it’s about the fighter, what he has up here [in his head]. So I feel I’m in a position where I’m able to work with anyone. So, yeah, who knows what will happen next year.”
Whilst not a clear confirmation that they won’t work together for his next fight, it was far from a statement from somebody who’s locked in to a partnership.
When the interviewer went on to ask if it meant Joshua’s training set up would be led mainly by Angel Fernandez, the former champion changed the subject. With a ring return pencilled in for early 2023, fans will hope that he knows what the set up is going to look like in the gym and perhaps just isn’t letting on.