McCracken: I Thought Anthony Joshua Did Really Well

By Edward Chaykovsky

Team GB’s Performance Director for boxing Rob McCracken, who also trains world champion Carl Froch, was pleased with super heavyweight Anthony Joshua's win over Cuban Erislandy Savon in the 2012 London games.

Joshua moves on to the quarter-finals with a 17-16 decision win over the nephew of three-time Olympic gold medallist Felix Savon. On Monday he takes on Zhilei Zhang of China, who picked up the silver medal four years ago in Beijing.

He told the Watford Observer: “Anthony Joshua is relatively still inexperienced – some could say an international novice, but a good novice. He is developing all the time. He will have learnt so much from last night and I thought he did really well. I had a brief chat with him this morning and he said he had plenty left in the engine and he wishes he’d thrown a few more punches.

“It was a really close bout, he nicked it and it is a great achievement for him. He will move on now to box the Chinese Olympic silver medallist from Beijing. Expectations maybe at times can be too high for someone with his experience, but he has embraced everything we have asked of him and he has taken it on. He believes in himself."