Veteran coach Robert Garcia clarified that heavyweight contender Anthony Joshua personally advised him about his plans to travel to the United States to visit other trainers.
However, AJ never actually told him that they would no longer work together.
“A couple of weeks ago, AJ called to tell me that he would come to the United States, to meet with other trainers to see how he feels training with them," Garcia told Izquierdazo. “But he never told me ‘I’m not working with you anymore’, he never told me ‘I don’t like your style’”
Joshua retained Garcia earlier this year, after parting ways with longtime trainer Robert McCracken.
Their first fight together did not go as planned. The British star lost a twelve round decision to WBO, IBF, IBO, WBA heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
Even if Garcia doesn’t understand why Joshua is changing his trainer again, he respects his decision.
“I don’t know why, but he has his management team, and they decided that," Garcia said. “I respect him, but what I respect the most is that he called me beforehand to tell me that he would be in the United States visiting other trainers”.
According to Garcia, there are no bad feelings towards Joshua and he wishes him good luck.
“As a trainer, I don’t have to feel bad about it," Garcia said. “He is not the first, and will not be the last that decides [to get a new coach]. I have had fighters that came from other trainers, and I have accepted them. When that happens, I call their former trainer to tell him that his fighter is working in my gym. When a fighter loses, he looks for another trainer. And if that is the case with Anthony, I’m not angry, I'm in agreement with him."
Garcia insists that regardless of who his new coach is, AJ needs to train in the United States.
“Even if he doesn’t train with me, I would like him to come to train in the United States," Garcia explains. “This is where he needs to have a camp, to change his routine, to leave his comfort zone, where he will get more responsibility. That's what I recommended to them. Anthony needs a gym with other fighters, other champions, more examples, more people motivating him, that will cheer him up. I think that someone training just by himself, always in his room, working without an external motivation, that may be affecting”.
Garcia feels that it is highly possible that AJ will relocate his permanent training camp to the United States, especially if he hires a busy trainer like Derrick James, who works with Errol Spence, Frank Martin and Jermell Charlo.
“I feel that he is taking the decision about coming to the United States (to locate his training camp)”, Garcia said. “Because, if he came to talk with trainers such as Derrick James, who is very busy here in the United States, I don’t think that AJ’s plan is to take him to Europe, maybe he is planning to stay here. And I will be happy to see him here (in the United States), even if he is not working with me. AJ needs a change, a completely new change to what he is not used to”.
Garcia has no regrets about what happened in the fight with Usyk.
“We had a good plan, and we had our good chances in the fight”, Garcia said. “We couldn’t win, but we have to keep in mind that we were fighting perhaps the best fighter pound for pound in the world. Usyk is a great fighter. It was a challenge for me to have my first fight with Anthony against a fighter like Usyk. We did everything we could, we had a good moment in the fight, but we couldn’t win it”.
And Garcia doesn’t close the door on working with Joshua in the future.
“If they decide to train with someone else, I wish them good luck”, Garcia said. “And if they decide to train with me, and would like to come to train in California, that would be good, because I feel that would work great for Joshua”.
