Roy Jones Jr has questioned Anthony Joshua’s partnership with Robert Garcia, claiming that the Mexican trainer isn’t used to dealing with heavyweights.
Garcia travelled to the UK to prepare ‘AJ’ for his attempt to win his world titles back from Usyk, but the Ukrainian’s skills proved too much for the second time in a row.
Whilst many gave all credit to Usyk, others felt Joshua’s performance wasn’t worthy of a win. Legendary fighter turned trainer, Roy Jones Jr, told OLBG that that the link up with Garcia wasn’t ideal.
“They tried to make the change. But I think he did not really understand what they were asking for and it wasn’t communicated properly to him, so he could understand what was being asked of him – that’s my outside opinion.
I didn’t feel that the change he made was going to be good because you’re getting a smaller guy to teach you how to fight a big guy. So, it was a tough situation for Garcia because I don’t know if Garcia’s been put in that situation.”
It’s no secret that Jones has thrown his hat in the ring to take the reins in Joshua’s camp. He went on to explain that, whilst his game plan for a Usyk fight would be similar, his delivery in the gym would be more suited to big men boxing than Garcia’s was.
“[My plan to beat Usyk], it’s the same concept that Garcia had in a sense, it’s just that Garcia is a shorter guy. He has a different way of doing it. And to me it would be very difficult for him to communicate to Joshua how to do something – Joshua’s a tall guy and Usyk is a tall guy.
It’s hard for a short guy to explain something to you that he never had to do. I’m not tall, but I had to deal with all of them. I went from junior middleweight to heavyweight. Nobody ever did that in the history of the sport. My range is a little bit different than Garcia’s.”
Whilst Joshua hasn’t announced a new training set up, it’s widely expected that he’ll do so. With a return to the ring targeted for the first quarter of 2023, decisions will have to be made to hit the ground running in January.