Anthony Joshua’s new trainer Robert Garcia has said he is working on correcting a ‘mental problem’ that the heavyweight seems to have displayed in the wake of defeat.
Joshua was comprehensively outpointed by Oleksandr Usyk in September to lose his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO titles, and now the pair are set for a rematch – likely to take place in Saudi Arabia in August.
The loss to Usyk marked the second defeat of “AJ”’s career. The first came in June 2019 in the form of a stoppage loss to Andy Ruiz Jr, whom Joshua outpointed at the end of that year in a rematch.
“Fighters come off a loss – like after the Andy Ruiz Jr fight – and they might think: ‘I lost a fight, so maybe I’m not as good?’” Garcia said on the Robert Garcia Unfiltered channel on YouTube.
“After he lost we’ve seen there’s more of a mental problem, so we’re working on that.
“He hates to lose. He’s thinking like a fighter, he’s thinking about going out there to do his job – to hurt his opponent, to win, to dominate, to hurt him bad. And that’s the mentality that he needs to have.
“He’s created a team of not only me and Angel [Fernandez], he hired other people – not trainers; different people that could help with the way he’s thinking, somebody that’s with him, thinking positive with him.”
Fernandez and Garcia are seemingly leading Joshua’s camp for the Usyk rematch, with the Briton’s long-time trainer Rob McCracken having stepped away from the 32-year-old’s coaching set-up for this fight.
Fernandez and Garcia will look to formulate a gameplan to help Joshua hand Usyk the first loss of the Ukrainian’s professional career.
