Having axed head coach Robert Garcia after getting beaten once again by Oleksandr Usyk in their rematch back in August, Anthony Joshua is searching for a new trainer. Joshua has been touring America recently and was pictured working with the likes of Virgil Hunter and Derrick James, with the Brit expected to decide on a new head coach in the new year.
Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr, a former four-weight world champion who has also coached Chris Eubank Jr, said in November he and Joshua had discussed working together.
“We spoke and I do have a plan for him,” Jones told Boxing Social. “I haven’t told him yet, but if he likes the way that we get along in the gym, then for me, any fighter he fights is going to be a big fight anyway.
“But, you got to go with guys who are not quite as good as [Oleksandr] Usyk or Tyson Fury yet. We need two good fights to get yourself back into motion and they’ll be good fights, they won’t be no stroll fights they’ll be good fights.
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“Then we go after either Usyk or Fury, whoever wins, but we do need two good fights to get him back and I already got two fights in my mind that I want, but I’ve got to talk to him and make sure that he is in agreement.” Joshua, however, played down the idea that Jones might become his new coach, telling iD Boxing: “I respect Roy, highly, what a man, what a talent, what a fighter.
“But with that being said, that doesn’t mean that just because of that, he is qualified to train me. That is where it ends really, but I’d love to see his work and we go from there.”
In response to Joshua’s comment’s, Jones proclaimed that “if I can’t teach you, you don’t want to learn”. When asked what he could bring to Joshua’s camp, Jones told iD Boxing: “What can I not bring?
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“I’m one of the greatest to ever do it, I did whatever I wanted to do. So I can show you how to do whatever I want you to because I did whatever I wanted to when I got ready and who was gonna stop me? Nobody.
“Why? Because they didn’t understand, so what can I not bring to him? For me to hear people say ‘oh, we don’t know man’… If I can’t teach you, you don’t want to learn.”