Eddie Hearn has voiced his opinions about Anthony Joshua’s boxing mindset compared to Oleksandr Usyk’s.
The Matchroom Boxing head honcho responded to a question about comments made by Robert Garcia in the wake of Joshua’s latest defeat.
The 32-year-old dropped a split decision at the hands of Usyk at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia last month.
And afterwards, Garcia – who was brought in as Joshua’s new head trainer after he split with long-time mentor Robert McCracken in the wake of his first loss to the Ukrainian southpaw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September – had his say about the man who he recently proposed a relocation strategy to AJ.
Garcia, a former world champion fighter before turning his hand to training, spoke to Izquierdazo about Joshua, his mindset, his post-fight antics and more – before insisting that they were mistranslated.
But Hearn is in agreement that Joshua, who has since apologised for his rant after Frazer Clarke, the man who is managed by his 258 MGT team, stated he was “left out to dry” by his team, is not as strong mentally in terms of boxing as the 35-year-old.
In an interview iFL TV, he said:
“The comments [from Garcia] were a translation from Spanish and, at the end of the day, I think Usyk’s mind is stronger than ‘AJ’s’.
And from a boxing sense, I think the guy [Usyk] had 400 amateur fights, he’s undisputed at cruiserweight, he’s been boxing since he was about six so there’s no shame in that and ‘AJ’, I felt, when they went back to their stools at the end of the ninth round, I felt ‘AJ’ was going to win the fight.
Robert [Garcia] is going to have his opinion, as is everybody else, and on we go.”
Hearn stated in the aftermath of his charge’s third career defeat that he will work to get him back in the ring sooner rather than later, with Joshua stating that he will “fight anybody” as he looks to get back in the winning saddle before rebuilding back to world title contention.