Lead trainer Robert Garcia wants Anthony Joshua to start having “stricter” training camps because he feels that’s missing during the 2012 Olympic gold medalist’s nine-year professional career.
Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) has been really struggling since 2019, losing three out of his last five fights and starting to show signs of being a shot fighter.
At the same time, how 33-year-old Joshua keeps shopping around for new trainers is troubling, as if he doesn’t understand that the problems he has is within himself and can’t be fixed by shuffling through different coaches, hoping that one of them will revive his career.
For starters, it would help if Joshua trimmed Angel Fernandez from his coaching team, as it’s pointless for AJ to keep moving from coach to coach if he’s going to keep him around as a third wheel. If Joshua is going to keep moving from trainer to trainer, then needs to cut Fernandez loose and listen to just one coach instead of two.
“Because everything was kind of easy and quick for him, he thought that that was the right way to do it, that he didn’t need to do it in another way,” said trainer Robert Garcia to Izquierdazo about wanting Anthony Joshua to start having tougher training camps to help turn his career around.
“But when the time comes for this kind of fight [such as Oleksandr Usyk], with fighters of a higher level, tougher fights, harder fights, you need a stricter camp, where he follows indications,” Robert continued.
What Joshua needs is help in these areas:
- Cardio
- Defense
- Game plans
Without Joshua fixing his poor stamina, he will have to continue having problems for the remainder of his career. You can’t have Joshua gassing out after three rounds and expect him to compete with the best heavyweights in the division.
Joshua’s inability to follow the instructions in the corner is also a massive problem because the things being told to him go in one ear and out the other. AJ has no attention span and proves to be a poor listener.
AJ does whatever he wants during the rounds, and the results have been poor. When Joshua is competing against disciplined fighters like Usyk, who follows his corner’s instructions to the letter, AJ doesn’t stand a chance because his decision-making is poor. He can’t think on his feet and constantly makes bizarre decisions inside the ring.
“He [Joshua] is a dedicated fighter, he does and listens to what he is told to, but maybe he thinks that he was a champion without doing that much or without commitment,” said Garcia. “But when you are fighting against opponents like Usyk, that is something different,” said Garcia.
