Former four-weight world champion, Roy Jones Jr, has revealed that he has been in talks with former unified heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, to become his new trainer.
‘AJ’ had made the switch to Mexican trainer Robert Garcia for his rematch with champion Oleksandr Usyk, however it seems as if the Brit intends to switch his corner up once again as he looks to get back into the winning column following back-to-back defeats for the first time in his career as both an amateur and professional.
At the Mayweather vs Deji fight week in Abu Dhabi, Roy Jones Jr spoke to Boxing Social about how he would train Joshua – and he seems confident that the partnership will indeed happen.
“Actually, to be honest with you, we spoke and I do have a plan for him. I haven’t told him yet, but if he likes the way that we get along in the gym, then for me, any fighter he fights is going to be a big fight anyway. But, you got to go with guys who are not quite as good as [Oleksandr] Usyk or Tyson Fury yet.
We need two good fights to get yourself back into motion and they’ll be good fights, they won’t be no stroll fights they’ll be good fights. Then we go after either Usyk or Fury, whoever wins, but we do need two good fights to get him back and I already got two fights in my mind that I want, but I’ve got to talk to him and make sure that he is in agreement.”
When asked if it was a realistic possibility he could be the new man in Joshua’s corner, Jones seemed confident it would happen:
“I think we are going to see it and if it happens then everything will go just as planned, but like I tell you, we will do two fights before and I think that the two fights that I have in my mind are really good fights, they’re really tough fights, but they’re good. This will let me know if he really wants it or if he don’t because if he does want it, he will see why we want to fight these two fights and he will go get it and he will be the man again.”
For now, Joshua has been linked with fights against Dillian Whyte (or Jermaine Franklin if he beats Whyte at the end of the month), Zhilei Zhang, Filip Hrgovic and Otto Wallin.
Whether or not ‘RJJ’ will be in ‘AJ’s corner remains to be seen – but it certainly sounds positive from one side.