This week, former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua compared his current coach, Derek James, to former coach Robert Garcia. For Garcia, Joshua's attitude is unhidden, he angrily criticizes the other party - nothing has taught me!
Joshua spent most of his career with his "guide" Robert McCracken, including a World Championship and a rematch to revenge "Little Fat" Andy Ruiz Jr. However, after losing to Orekosandr Usyk in 2021, Joshua ended his partnership with McCracken and hired American coach Robert Garcia, who is also the brother and coach of four-division champion Mitch Garcia.
However, Joshua's cooperation with Garcia was not successful, at least in the rematch with Usyk, Joshua lost again to his opponent. With Joshua defeated, Garcia automatically left class.
At present, Joshua is being coached by James in the United States, who is also the coach of famous boxing champions Errol Spence and Gimel Charlot, although in the first match with James, defeating Jermaine Franklin by points, Joshua was mediocre, but he still praised James's coaching level and showed dissatisfaction with former coach Garcia.
Joshua said: "I had Garcia by my side when I was preparing for the rematch with Usyk, and the date of the match was constantly delayed, and the general opinion on Usyk's side was that they needed to finalize the big fight as soon as possible because they didn't want me to spend too much time running in with Garcia. In the back of my mind, I felt like Garcia had taught me nothing, that it didn't matter even if the two of us had worked together for a year, that I was doing things on my own anyway. ”
In stark contrast to Garcia, Joshua became very "coming" when it came to current coach James, saying: "With James, I immerse myself in every second of the training camp, success or not, James is the truth, as an independent person, James is real and time with him is precious." ”
If the author is not mistaken, during the cooperation with Garcia, Joshua was also very good at "coming to things", and also praised Garcia, implying that the other party was indeed "extraordinary" compared to the previous coach, so James had better not be too happy about Joshua's praise, because when the two sides end their cooperation, he may become Joshua's new target of criticism.
Did former coach Garcia help Joshua? Only Joshua himself knows best, but according to the Joshua team members later revealed that in the cooperation with Garcia, the other party did not focus on improving Joshua's technology, and the strategy developed was very "simple", but Garcia focused on helping Joshua recover his psychological state and make him more aggressive in front of Usyk. The reality is that through the Joshua vs Usyk rematch, Joshua has not changed much except for a slightly active attack, the most significant point is that although Joshua attacks very positively, it is a pity that he can't fight Usyk as usual.
Next, Joshua will play his old rival Delian White with the help of James, and it is not clear how Joshua will face White after nearly 8 years since the first meeting between the two sides.