Anthony Joshua's coach Robert Garcia insists he was mistranslated when suggesting his fighter was "mentally defeated".
Joshua came up s second best in his revenge mission with Usyk after falling to split-decision defeat in their rematch in Saudi Arabia. New coach Garcia trained the heavyweight star alongside Angel Fernandez and expressed doubts over Joshua's mindset going into the fight.
In a recent interview with Spanish-speaking Outlet IZQUIERDAZO, it was reported that Garcia had claimed Joshua was second best mentally to the Ukrainian. "Joshua was mentally defeated since round 10 or 11," he said during the interview after translation. "Round 10 was a big one for Usyk. That changed the whole fight, and mentally we were defeated. At that point, we were relying on a good shot or something like that."
However he has since backtracked on his claims and has admitted he would never say these words about any of his fighters irrespective of Joshua's damaging defeat. “I spoke to a Spanish reporter that I know so I gave him a little interview, but from Spanish translated to English, they make it seem like, ‘Oh, Robert is talking s***’, pretty much," Garcia said when clarifying his comments in a conversation with ES News.
“I wouldn’t say that about my fighters, man. I’ve never done it before and I never will. “The headline is, ‘Robert says Anthony mentally beat himself’ but I never said that. I said that Usyk after being hurt really bad in the ninth he came in the 10th like that never happened, he came strong which you’ve got to applaud that.
"So that’s not saying ‘oh, Anthony was beat mentally’. Usyk came back strong and dominated those three rounds. I said, ‘Look, Usyk being the winner, the champion and Anthony grabbing the belts that’s disrespecting the champion’. But Anthony was frustrated. F*** he hates to lose. He came back and apologised and everything was good.”
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Joshua showed significant marks of improvement and it even looked as if 'AJ' had the opportunity to close the show in the ninth round but he was unable to capitalise. After the fight Joshua stormed out of the ring before launching himself into an uncharacteristic X-rated rant following his third loss.
In the previous interview, Garcia had claimed that Joshua had acted disrespectfully after the fight and did the right thing by issuing an apology. However he has again claimed he was mistranslated and believes he was only disrespectful to the champion by throwing his belts.
"Some reports were saying 'Robert says Anthony was disrespectful' but I didn't mean it that way," he continued. "I said, 'Look Usyk being the champion and Anthony grabbing the belts that is disrespecting the champion' but Anthony was frustrated and f*** he hates to lose. He came back and apologised and everything was good."
