Anthony Joshua believes there were “too many voices” in his corner during last year’s shock defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
Speaking ahead of their August 20 rematch, he explained he hadn’t been made aware of the need to get his act together with Usyk tightening his grip on the contest and eventually snatching Joshua's WBA (Super), IBF and WBO titles
Since then his coach, Robert Garcia, has replaced his trainer and mentor Rob McCracken. But Joby Clayton, clearly audible in that original fight insisting Joshua had been doing well, remains.
Joshua said: “There was a lot going on in the corner and that didn’t help. A corner is like a pitstop. You’ve got probably 55 seconds in total to calm down, hydrate, simple instructions.
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“Too many voices at once is definitely not good for anybody, not just me. It wasn’t like ‘take the fight to this f***** , listen you’re losing the fight’, no.”
Asked whether he felt he was winning the fight, he added: “I swear I thought I was. I thought I was looking like Muhammad Ali in there. I can show you sparring footage where I’m on the ropes leaning.
“Throughout the fight I thought I was winning but at that stage [by the 12th round] I kind of knew it was close. I thought at that stage I was well in the fight because it didn’t seem like there was any real communication as to where I’m at.
“Like ‘you’re losing this fight… you’re down by two rounds’. I didn’t get that.
“I’m not blaming anyone by saying that but I didn’t get any impression that I was losing the fight. I thought we were well in it. That’s why when they announced the name I was kind of like ‘huh?’
“It was all just ‘that’s it, keep on going’. So I was jabbing and jabbing. It was hard to accept afterwards.
“Now when I watch it back I think he won by three rounds, that’s probably from the 9th onwards.”
Joshua won his one other rematch in his professional career, when he beat Andy Ruiz Jr on points in a 2019 contest, also staged in Saudi Arabia.
"I'm definitely desperate to get my hands on the titles," he said.
