Anthony Joshua's coach told him to fly him home during Oleksandr Usyk fight camp

30 July 2023 , 09:18

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Anthony Joshua's coach told him to fly him home during Oleksandr Usyk fight camp

Renowned boxing trainer Robert Garcia asked Anthony Joshua to send him home during the brief fight camp the pair had last year together ahead of his Oleksandr Usyk rematch.

The multiple-time world champion trainer was enlisted to replace Rob McCracken last summer and moved out to London for a custom training camp that were tasked with getting Joshua his unified world heavyweight titles back. But after just one fight together, that team was split up as the Brit moved to Dallas to train with Derrick James.

And speaking about the experience a year on, Garcia has explained how it was never long for this world, even noting that he asked to go home early in the process. The team never truly gelled, and concerns about the American's ability to train an heavyweight at the top level were found to be reasonable.

"Every fighter, every person has an opinion," Garcia said in an interview with Boxing News. I remember after the fight with Usyk I heard nothing but good things from boxing people. Everyone calling me like ‘you know what, he looked better than the first time, he was a little more aggressive, he landed some good body shots.’ So I know that I did my job."

Joshua has come out and criticised his former coaches in recent weeks, particularly his original trainer McCracken who took him to Olympic gold and two world titles. And he hasn't been shy to explain the situation with Garcia, allowing the American to put together a case for the defence.

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Robert Garcia was unconvinced by Anthony Joshua when they worked together (Getty Images)

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"I know that he did look better than the first time," Garcia noted. "Fighters come from saying one thing to another. If we really had that situation, then the problem is he doesn’t have a communication with his management team, because when I first got to camp, I wasn’t very happy with what I seen going on in his training camp.

"I told his team ‘fly me home, I don’t want to be part of this’ and they convinced me to stay. So, if that was the case, I think Anthony should have said ‘let him go, cause I don’t wanna work with him.' I knew it’s not gonna work out because the way camp was going with other people that were involved, I don’t need to say any names.”

Donagh Corby