Anthony Joshua in 'a difficult situation' as AJ told Usyk questions 'can't happen'
Anthony Joshua can't afford to have any doubts leading up to his comeback fight in the spring.
Emotional Anthony Joshua explains erratic behaviour after defeat
Renowned trainer Dave Coldwell has affirmed that Anthony Joshua must choose a coach that he can trust if he hopes to rebuild his career. Joshua recently parted ways with new lead Robert Garcia after only four months together and has struggled to build a positive connection since axing long-time mentor Rob McCracken in 2021.
Despite being guided to Olympic gold and two runs as heavyweight world champion under McCracken, Joshua had little faith in his coach leading up to his first fight with Oleksandr Usyk. According to reports, Joshua was seen asking another trainer about tactics hours before his unified heavyweight title defence.
Shortly after, he would go on the hunt for a new head trainer – opting to recruit the services of Garcia after also visiting Virgil Hunter, Eddy Reynoso and Ronnie Shields. But now it appears Joshua is doing the same again with images emerging in recent weeks of AJ working with Hunter and Derrick James out in America.
Coldwell states that Joshua must find someone that understands him as a man and his mentality in order to get the best out of the latter stages of his career but isn’t sure who that a person is.
“I’ve always said that a fighter needs to be comfortable with the coach that he has got,” Coldwell told iD Boxing. “Whatever we think on the outside, the fighter has got to be comfortable, the fighter fights, the fighter has to listen to instructions, come back to the corner at the end of each round, trust the coach and together they can work out how to win the fight.
“If that trust and that connection isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how great that coach is, it doesn’t work. At this stage of this career, it is a worry because you’re not going to come back in some eight-rounder against a journeyman.
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"You’re coming back into the deep end and again you’ve got to get used to this new coach, whoever he is bringing on. Whoever that is, has to understand Anthony Joshua the man and his mentality.
“Because where he is coming up to a fight and he’s asking a million people’s opinions, on how they fight him (Oleksandr Usyk) that can’t be happening. Where is the confidence in the work you’ve been doing all these months? It’s a difficult situation and who he should go with I don’t know. And this search in America, just because these coaches work well with other great fighters doesn’t mean it’s going to work with you.”