Anthony Joshua arrives in the US again to hunt for a new coach
Two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua appears to have made the decision to appoint a third coach in three bouts as he aims to return to the ring around the end of March.
For the first time in his career, Joshua suffered back-to-back defeats, amateur or professional, when he lost to the respected Oleksandr Usyk, which prompted ‘AJ’ to travel to the United States in search of a tennis player. new. coach for the second time in twelve months.
The British tennis player has been led by Rob McCracken since turning professional in 2013, but left McCracken after his second career defeat, when he lost to Usyk in 2021.
Joshua then went on a tour of the United States, where he visited all the top coaches, including the likes of Eddie Reynoso, Ronnie Shields and Virgil Hunter, before deciding that the coach was Mexican Robert Garcia was the one who prepared him to defeat Usyk.
Garcia has coached the likes of Vergil Ortiz, Mikey Garcia, Marcos Maidana, Nonito Donaire and one of the breakout stars of 2022 Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, but despite his improvement, he hasn’t. successful in his attempt to help Joshua, as the British tennis player. lose again.
Now it looks like Joshua is looking to convert again. He posted a video on the shadow boxing snapchat next to the American flag and boxing journalist, Michael Benson, also reported that Joshua was in Virgil Hunter’s gym.
Hunter is a widely respected coach who has coached many world champions including Andre Ward and England’s Amir Khan
Anthony Joshua is now again out in the US learning from different coaches before returning in 2023. AJ worked out in Virgil Hunter’s gym yesterday. Hunter was one of the coaches he visited last year before deciding to team up with Robert Garcia for the Oleksandr Usyk rematch.
– Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) December 5, 2022
In a recent interview with Sporting NewsJoshua explains that he wants the freedom to be able to absorb as much knowledge as possible from each of the top coaches, rather than becoming too attached to Garcia or any other coach.
“I respect him [Robert Garcia] much. He’s a really good man, a really good coach. Will I work with him again? Yes, I would, but what I told Robert and the group was that I wanted to be a free spirit. You know, I locked myself in for 11 years with a coach, and now I just feel like I just want to learn as much as I can.”
With Joshua and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, targeting back in March/April, it looks like Joshua will only have three or four months of training under whichever coach he chooses for the bout. An opponent is still unconfirmed, but Joshua insists that he has a lot of options.