It was all but a no-brainer for Anthony Joshua once he witnessed firsthand what his newest trainer had to offer to his career.
Unfortunately, he was never closer than 200 miles away from making that discovery when he was first on the hunt for a new cornerman.
The hulking Brit visited several gyms throughout the country before he settled on Robert Garcia to join his team, which ended a search to replace his career-long head trainer Robert McCracken. Derrick James was among the few top coaches not on the list of Joshua’s U.S. tour.
“I didn’t actually go and see Derrick unfortunately,” Joshua informed BoxingScene.com. “When I was in Texas, I went to see Ronnie Shields in Houston but I didn’t end up in Dallas. Funnily enough, I missed out on that stop.”
Garcia joined Joshua’s team shortly after a September 2021 defeat to Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13KOs) which ended his second unified WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight title reign. The union reportedly worked well, though Joshua (24-3, 22KOs) jokingly admitted to BoxingScene.com that Garcia was not the easiest to please.
Statistically, Joshua did not get the desired outcome as he suffered a repeat loss to Usyk in their rematch last August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 2012 Olympic Gold medalist and still relevant top heavyweight now puts his trust in James to handle the reins beginning with his upcoming fight versus Michigan heavyweight Jermaine Franklin (21-1, 14KOs) this Saturday at The O2 in London.
“Garcia was very good – he worked well with Angel Fernandez who was the trainer of that training camp,” insisted Joshua. “They gelled well. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the decision, but we gelled well.
“Garcia was brought in to do a job for the Usyk fight and then once that fight is done, I was like I’m going to find something that works for me for the rest of my career.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox