ANTHONY JOSHUA’s new coach Robert Garcia told the boxing star that he needed to change his attitude before teaming up with him.
Reports have emerged that the Brit will have the trainer in his corner for his world title rematch with Oleksandr Usyk this summer.
Robert Garcia previously told Anthony Joshua that he needs an attitude change to reclaim the titlesCredit: SnapchatAJ is set to face Oleksandr Usyk in a rematch later this summerCredit: Reuters
AJ, who has split from long-time mentor Rob McCracken after his second defeat in four fights, met Garcia while travelling around gyms in the USA following his loss to the Ukrainian in September.
He also visited fellow coaches Ronnie Shields, Eddy Reynoso and a host of others while Stateside – but it was Garcia, 47, that he decided to work with.
Garcia insisted that he have total control of the camp if he was to train Joshua and try and guide him to becoming a three-time heavyweight champ.
Back in December, he told Boxing King Media: “If Anthony hires me as a trainer, he’s the main guy. But if he hires me, I’m the boss and he’s going to do what I tell him to do.
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Anthony Joshua ‘to be trained by Garcia for Oleksandr Usyk rematch’
“You’re going to train the way I want you to train, and you’re going to follow instructions. If you’re not, then choose somebody else.
“I think Anthony is more talented than both Usyk and Fury. They’re great fighters. Usyk had a great win, he’s a great style, he’s difficult and Fury is the man at heavyweight right now.
“But I still think that Anthony Joshua has more skills and when you’re talking about skills he’s got to believe in himself.
“He’s got to believe that his skills are good enough to beat both of them, and he’s got to do it.
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“He needs to say, ‘Maybe I could take a punch from those guys, but they won’t be able to take my punches,’ you’ve got to have that mentality.”
Garcia continued: “I’ve been working with so many other fighters that have that same problem, you’ve got to change that, you’ve got to change their mentality and the way they think. You can’t be nice in the ring.”
Joshua is widely-expected to get Garcia to England for his Usyk training camp but is also not ruling out working in America beforehand.
His shot at redemption against Usyk was due to take place in Saudi Arabia on July 23 – although that is expected to be delayed into August.
And Garcia was adamant back before Christmas that he can help Joshua discover the “killer instinct” needed to down Usyk.
He also said: “Talent wise I think he’s the best heavyweight, he’s very talented but he needs to be in a place in a gym with other trainers with other fighters that are going to push him.
“He needs to change his attitude with me. He cant get hit and smile.
“You know that happened with him against Usyk in the last round. He is getting hit and smiling. You know he is giving credit to his opponent.
“You’ve got to be mad, because you are getting hit. He needs to have that mentality, that killer instinct. It sounds bad to say but in the ring you want to to hurt your opponent.”
