Anthony Joshua has officially appointed a new head trainer, with the change necessary following his embarrassing defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua has been alongside Robert McCracken since the very start of his career, but you felt as though change was necessary after he was outclassed by Usyk and subsequently lost all of his heavyweight belts.
It’s not entirely clear what sort of instructions were given to Joshua by McCraken ahead of the bout, with the Briton’s gameplan seemingly to outbox an obviously superior technical boxer.
Joshua ought to have imposed his superior weight, strength and reach, but made no use of those advantages and subsequently took another loss on his professional boxing record.
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There has been significant suggestion since the fight took place that Joshua would look to make wholesale changes ahead of the proposed rematch. We now have confirmation that he has changed trainer.
‼️ Anthony Joshua has declared that Angel Fernandez is his new main trainer. Fernandez has been an assistant coach to AJ for the past three years and will now head up his camp. [@BehindTheGloves]
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) March 6, 2022
Whether that will be enough to close the game on Usyk, when the fight eventually does take place, remains to be seen, but a change from McCraken was inevitable and can only be interpreted as a positive step.
