Rumours had been circulating that Anthony Joshua has split from his trainer Derrick James. Now, the American has responded.
Eddie Hearn recently spoke about Joshua having linked up with Tyson Fury’s former trainer Ben Davison, but stated his fighter was still 100% with James and was just ‘ticking over’ in Davison’s gym.
Despite the clarification, rumours spread online that he had decided to split with the Texan trainer entirely.
Currently, Hearn is working towards the two-time heavyweight champion’s next fight. It would be his third fight with James who is so far 2 and 0 in Joshua’s corner having overseen his points win over Jermaine Frankly in April and his knockout of late replacement opponent Robert Helenius in August.
Those have been some of James’s few successes this year as others in his gym, namely Errol Spence and Jermell Charlo, have had high-profile losses against Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez respectively.
Speaking to FightHype, James was asked about his situation with Joshua.
“People start all these rumours or whatever. That’s just stupid. I saw somebody report on it. And I was like OK, I know the person who reported on it, if they wanted to know they could have just called me and asked me about it.”
He then, without saying it directly, confirmed that he was still in the Brit’s corner.
“Hey man, come on. It doesn’t even need to be talked about.”
Joshua has since landed back in Texas and been at the World Class Boxing Gym with James.
He is expected out in January before pushing for a Deontay Wilder fight in Spring, but his team have recently been distracted by the potential of facing Francis Ngannou.