Anthony Joshua has said he was left ‘baffled’ by comments made by his former trainer Robert Garcia surrounding his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua was trained by Rob McCracken for a large portion of his career but made changes to his team after his 2019 defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr.
At that time he added Angel Fernandez and Joby Clayton to make a three-man team based up in Sheffield.
The trio were successful in helping Joshua defeat Andy Ruiz Jr in their rematch and also his 2020 win against Kubrat Pulev.
However, AJ described a ‘massive breakdown’ was what caused him to switch things up entirely after his first loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021.
For the rematch, Joshua allegedly let Fernandez choose a new trainer to join Joshua’s team to help him get one over Usyk, with the Spaniard choosing Robert Garcia.
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‘You know what, I rate him,” said Joshua at the time.
“Been there, done it.’ And the goal was Usyk – that was our target, but we came up short.”
After the rematch defeat, Garcia came out and said he felt Joshua didn’t help himself in the loss due to his mindset.
An emotional Anthony Joshua speaks after his defeat against Oleksandr Usyk 💔
🗣️ "𝗜'𝗺 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁" 💔💔pic.twitter.com/kNMlhkNe0x
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) August 21, 2022
“Joshua was mentally defeated since round 10 or 11,” Garcia told IZQUIERDAZO, “Round 10 was a big one for Usyk. That changed the whole fight, and mentally we were defeated.
“I have even thought in these last few days that it was Anthony Joshua who mentally defeated himself.”
Joshua responded to these comments, saying: “I just felt like Garcia kind of said a lot, which baffled me as well.
“But I’m not a little boy, I can take it.”
The 33-year old hasn’t fought since his rematch loss to Usky back in August but has a new fight on the horizon with him set to face Jermaine Franklin on April 1st at the O2 Arena in London.