Joshua teamed up with experienced American Robert Garcia for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, but ultimately came up short in Saudi Arabia and will now face a heavyweight rebuild
Anthony Joshua will no longer work with Robert Garcia or any other coach exclusively following his second defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.
‘AJ’ parted ways with long-term coach Robert McCracken last year after facing heavy criticism for his tactics in his second career defeat to the Ukrainian last year. The former two-time champion then linked up with experienced coach Robert Garcia who came over to the UK to prepare him for the lucrative second meeting in Saudi Arabia back in August.
However Garcia was unable to guide Joshua to his revenge as he lost sight of his unified heavyweight world titles for the foreseeable future after falling to a split decision defeat again against Usyk. Now the British star has insisted he will work with coaches on a fight-to-fight basis, but predicts that he will work with Garcia again in the future.
“So in terms of Robert Garcia, thank you for asking. I respect him a lot,” Joshua told Sporting News when asked who would be cornering him for his potential comeback in 2023. “He’s a really good man, really good trainer. Will I work with him again? Yeah I would, but what I’ve said to Robert and the team as well is that I want to be a free spirit. You know, I locked myself down for 11 years with one coach, and now I just feel like I just want to learn as much as possible.