ANTHONY JOSHUA’S former coach has taken another shot at the British boxer – claiming he instantly thought the training camp was a “joke” when they worked together.
Trainer Robert Garcia was brought in by AJ last year following his first defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
And after Usyk, 36, won the rematch last August, Garcia was publicly critical of Joshua, 33, which led to his dismissal from the camp.
AJ was told afterwards that he needed a “stricter camp” after having it too “easy and quick” by the American.
Another dig was then fired by Garcia as he claimed that the 2012 Olympic Gold medallist would lose to lightweight Gervonta Davis.
The animosity between Garcia and Joshua, who previously said his first trainer Rob McCracken did not teach him defence, appears to be mutual.
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The 33-year-old Watford-born star, who has bounced back from the Usyk setbacks with a unanimous decision win over Jermaine Franklin before Saturday’s seventh round knockout of Robert Helenius, has claimed that he was taught nothing by Garcia.
But his now apparent foe hit back this week in extraordinary fashion when asked for his thoughts on AJ’s comments during an appearance on the Little Giant Boxing podcast.
He said: “I don’t really pay attention to that. I didn’t hear it. Somebody read it to me, but to me, it’s just what boxing is, man.
“When you’re with a fighter everything is going well then at the end something goes wrong and the first one to blame is the trainer.
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“One thing I will tell you, when I first got to training camp in London in England, the first week, there was things that they were doing, people involved, it’s just not my style.
“And honestly I have all the emails where I told the management team, I said please fly me home, it was a joke.”
Garcia then added: “The way it was going, the people involved, things they were doing to prepare for a fight, things were going on in training camp I would just sit and laugh by myself.
“I told the management team can you just please fly me home I’m not going to be part of this, they convinced me to stay, change things around, which I did – I changed things around and we ended up doing good.
“But one week into camp I was ready to leave camp so if that was the case [that they weren’t happy with me] they should have sent me home when I wanted to go.”
Joshua is now preparing for one of his biggest challenges yet with an expected showdown against KO artist Deontay Wilder, the former WBC heavyweight champ, in Saudi Arabia in December.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
