New coach Robert Garcia says Anthony Joshua is “motivated” for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk on August 20th, knowing that he has to win to progress to the next level to battle WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury for the undisputed championship.
Losing the rematch to Usyk would be a crushing blow to Joshua’s career, as that would be his third defeat in his last five fights and a sign that his career can’t be saved by any trainer’s help.
If Garcia can’t help Joshua, there’s probably nobody that can. Robert wants to turn Joshua into an aggressive fighter who uses his size & strength to rough up the smaller Usyk on August 20th.
If the plan works, Robert will look like a genius and have a storm of fights asking him to train them. That is to say; we would be witnessing the herd mentality with fighters following Joshua, hoping they can get the same results with Robert as their coach.
Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) has been studying tapes, learning, and trying to improve on the mistakes he made in his loss to Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) last September at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in London, England.
“It’s been going great. We’ve been training hard,” said trainer Robert Garcia to Little Giant Boxing about Anthony Joshua’s preparation for his August 20th rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
“He’s been training hard and wants to be undisputed. To become undisputed, he’s got to win his next fight against Usyk. He’s motivated, training hard, and doing everything he’s told.
“He listens and studies videos a lot, so we’re going good,” Robert said about Joshua. “It works good for us, even though we’ve been working since December,” said Robert about the Joshua vs. Usyk 2 fight being pushed back a month from July to August.
Joshua has been training since December
“People don’t know; I’ve been going back and forth since December. This is my third time in the UK, and I’ve been staying there for two weeks. I’ve been over there for five weeks, and we’ve got eight more. It’s going to be perfect.
“He’s [Joshua] going to be in great shape, and he’s going to come and do what he has to do. He wants to be undisputed, so he needs to win this fight. That’s what we keep reminding him.
“There’s no other thing to motivate him, make him think positive, and make him want it bad. He knows what he needs to do. I’m thrilled. The whole team has been on the same page. Not just me.
“We got Angel Fernandez, we got the conditioning coach, and so many people are all helping. Everybody has their role, listens, and does what they’re told, and we’re working together to make him a champion again.
“Usyk has always been cool. He used to train in my gym. We joke around and play around, but they’re professionals and great people too,” said Robert about Oleksandr Usyk and his team.
