Anthony Joshua’s relationship with his trainers, both old and current, has been a much debated topic in boxing over the past 18 months.
Joshua parted ways with long time coach Rob McCracken to work with Robert Garcia ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, only to ditch Garcia after just one fight to link up with Derrick James in Dallas.
As well as his head coaches, Joshua’s previous camps reportedly had a host of other people involved, each tasked with improving a different aspect of the Brit’s performance.
Speaking to Antoine Speaks, ‘AJ’ admitted this was the “worst thing to happen in his career.”
“I started seeing people slipping with noodles, counter punching and doing 15 punch combinations and I thought, “I need some of that!”
I got somebody to help with my movement, someone to help me with my defence, somebody to help with my striking – I formulated a team. Which was actually the worst thing to happen in my career.
When I was looking around, I needed to improve but I was looking for it through one person, and with Derrick I’ve found that.
Boxing is simple, and when you’re getting the right information from the right person, you can understand it at a much quicker rate.”
Joshua’s first outing under James came back in April, where he won a unanimous decision against Jermaine Franklin at the 02 Arena, however the performance raised more questions than answers about Joshua’s future at the business end of the heavyweight division.
James, Eddie Hearn and everyone else involved in Joshua’s career will hope to see improvements when he rematches old foe Dillian Whyte this August.