Tyson Fury has played down the impact that Robert Garcia will have as Anthony Joshua’s new coach, saying the American will not help “AJ” to beat Oleksandr Usyk this summer.
Joshua suffered a comprehensive decision defeat by Usyk last September, losing the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles to the unbeaten Ukrainian in London.
Joshua is set for a rematch with Usyk this August, and the Briton has recruited Garcia to work alongside Angel Fernandez, while the 32-year-old’s long-time trainer Rob McCracken has stepped away from the camp.
“Unless Anthony Joshua gets his a** up to Morecambe and lets me train him for this fight, Robert Garcia and 10 men like him will not make him beat Usyk,” Fury said in an interview on Queensberry Promotions’ YouTube channel.
“Because: One, they don’t know him; two, they don’t know what he’s got in his engine; and three, he’s not a little Mexican who can go toe to toe with someone for 15 rounds. If he gets on Usyk from Round 1 and tries to push and be aggressive, he’ll be gassed out after four rounds and get stopped in seven.
“But if he comes to Morecambe Bay and I teach him how to be a real fighting man for 12 rounds and how to deal with these little middleweight people, then he will get a win. But other than that, I see him getting beat again. Two in a row, baby, and it’s over.
“But if he wants to resurrect his career, please come up to the man who’s never lost a fight in his life, been undefeated for 13 years and retired as only the second heavyweight in history to be on top of the game – won every belt in history there is to win.”
Joshua’s only previous defeat as a professional came in June 2019, when he was knocked out by Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden in New York City. At the end of that year, AJ avenged the loss by outpointing the Mexican-American to regain the heavyweight belts that he had lost to him in their first fight – and would later drop to Usyk.
When asked whether Usyk – the only undisputed cruiserweight champion of the four-belt era, prior to his move up to heavyweight – could knock out Joshua, Fury said: “It all goes on what Robert Garcia’s gameplan is and how quick he wants [Joshua] to get chinned.
“To have a style of keep coming forward and putting pressure on somebody, when you’re a big man like he is and like I am, you need to have two V12 engines. You need to be able to take punches as well, and you need to have b***s like King Kong. None of them three of the above does he have.
“Other than that, he’s got to have the best gameplan ever. The way I see him doing it, if he trains with [Garcia], is he might hit him with a big punch – which he didn’t last time – and try and knock him out that way.
“Honestly if he goes on the front foot and tries to be aggressive and all that with Usyk, I think he’ll get stopped inside eight rounds, and I mean that.”
Fury knocked out Dillian Whyte in April to retain the WBC heavyweight title in an all-British bout at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Fury had vowed not to fight again after that contest, but the 33-year-old has now opened the door to a clash with the winner of Joshua-Usyk 2.
