Roy Jones Jr has weighed in with his assessment of Anthony Joshua’s first fight under new trainer Derrick James earlier this month.
Joshua won a wide unanimous decision victory over Jermaine Franklin, however his failure to get the knockout left many people wondering what, if any, improvements had been made in the four months he spent working under James.
In a recent interview with ID Boxing, Jones admitted the relationship hadn’t clicked into gear yet, but reminded fans sometimes these things take time.
“Sometimes it takes time for a fighter and trainer to get their whole aspect together. Apparently, that hasn’t happened straight away, but if they [Johsua and James] stay together, then maybe they’ll finally get some continuity, but they definitely did get any in that first fight.”
“Hopefully they get better as they go, it sometimes takes bit of time for things to kick in for a fighter and they get on the same page.”
“So hopefully in the next couple of fights they’ll get better and start to gel, because in that fight they didn’t get much at all.”
Jones himself had actually been in talks to train Joshua following his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in Jeddah last year, however ‘AJ’ opted to relocate to Dallas to work with James instead.
The former unified world champion had been expected to be back in the ring in July, however last week he revealed on social media his next fight would not be until December.
There has been heavy speculation surrounding the reason for this and with reports of a blockbuster four man heavyweight tournament in Saudi Arabia for the end of the year, some feel Joshua may have landed a mega fight in the region.