ANTHONY JOSHUA has been urged to sack the “back slappers and a***-kissers” from his team.
The Brit suffered a second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia last month.
AJ, 32, is now in talks to fight Tyson Fury in the UK later this year.
If he is to have success, former featherweight champion Barry McGuigan feels that he needs to make big changes.
The Irishman, 61, told Boxing King Media: “Joshua just needs to take a bit of time out, let his head chill, get his team sorted out, get rid of the back-slappers and the a***-kissers – and there are loads of those…
“Sack the whole God damn lot of them, take out half-a-dozen of the most important people in his team and that’s enough.
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“He needs to go back to basics, he’s always been a power puncher, and he needs to just get on with it.”
Joshua began working with trainer Robert Garcia ahead of his second Usyk bout, but this clearly wasn’t enough for McGuigan.
The “Clones Cyclone” also urged AJ to build his confidence back up.
He added: “Joshua has always been able to hit with power.
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“He has had a confidence issue since the Ruiz fight, but he needs to get back in there and start sparring again with good quality opposition, pick a number of low-key opponents – even if you blow them away again – to give him a bit of confidence.
“But ultimately, he needs to be aggressive. Whether he fights Usyk or whether he fights Tyson Fury, he has to be aggressive.”
The Gypsy King’s promoter Frank Warren confirmed that talks regarding a fight with AJ have been put on hold following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II last week.
He told talkSPORT: “It wasn’t appropriate obviously. That’s how we feel.
“We’ve put it on hold and will pick up on it in the next week or so.
“From our perspective, we don’t feel it is appropriate out of respect for what has happened.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
