Anthony Joshua may suffer mentally if Tyson Fury fight held in NYC, says Robert Garcia

Decorated trainer Robert Garcia says that bringing the heavyweight superfight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury to New York could be a bad idea, given Joshua’s history in “The Big Apple” and the way his emotions can affect his work in the ring.

Garcia, who served as Joshua’s head trainer for his split-decision rematch loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022, says putting the fight in New York, and especially Madison Square Garden, could add psychological weight and pressure to Joshua’s already concerning mind frame.

Last time he fought in New York, Joshua suffered his upset knockout loss to Andy Ruiz in 2019.

“Robert, you've mentioned AJ because you know him. You trained with him and know him personally. You've mentioned there are certain things, like his head and his emotions, that can affect him. Going back to the Garden where he got stopped by Andy Ruiz, where he had such a horrible night for his career, would you worry about that at all? Would you have any worry about PTSD of going back to that location?” asked Chris Algieri on Monday’s BoxingScene Today episode, the YouTube show he and Garcia co-host multiple times per week.

“I would because I worked with him. I know how he thinks,” Garcia responds. “I know what goes through his mind… unless in the last three years since I worked with him, a lot has changed. But look, I don't think it's a good idea. The fact that they're bringing it to New York is already something I don't like. I think that fight was supposed to be in the UK.”

Garcia, who admitted last week on the show that he turned down appearing in a Netflix documentary about Joshua because he wasn’t willing to gloss over what he sees as Joshua’s current physical and mental state as a fighter, going as far as calling it “dangerous” for the British former Olympic gold medalist to continue fighting, goes on to say he hope Saudi boxing financier Turki Alalshikh will step in and move the fight venue to the UK.

“If Turki wants to put up the money to make the difference, he's got the power to do it,” said Garcia. “There are people that love to spend money on music and sports, just to say, ‘I had them perform for me.’ Maybe Turki's doing the same thing with boxing. ‘They're going to perform for me wherever I want them to perform.’ That's the power that he has. I don't know if that could be the case…”

Nevertheless the two hosts agree the long-awaited superfight will be a world event, no matter where it ends up.

“It's going to be huge. People are going to travel. People from the UK are going to travel. They're really packed. It's going to be full, but I would prefer it to be in England. It was much better to have that fight in the UK. 90,000 (fans at Wembley stadium) just has a nice ring to it, man. The garden's great. Listen, everybody loves the garden. You (Algieri) and I have fought in the garden, a whole bunch of times The garden's awesome. There is no better venue I'd rather fight, but if I have an opportunity to fight for 90,000, especially my people… we got two Brits fighting in New York. I don't know; it just it takes a little bit off it.”