Why I sacked my Trainer – Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua has explained why he parted ways with his former trainer Rob McCracken, after his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk last year.

Speaking ahead of the August rematch with the Ukrainian slated for Saudi Arabia in August, Joshua said, he felt deceived by some of the actions of his former trainer during the last bout at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

He said they gave him an impression that was leading Usyk on the scorecard.

“I thought he was winning the contest at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. “I swear I thought I was. I thought I was looking like Muhammad Ali in there. Throughout the fight I thought I was winning but at that stage I kind of knew it was close.”

“I thought I was well in the fight because it didn’t seem like there was any real communication as to where I was at. Like ‘you’re losing this fight… you’re down by two rounds’. I didn’t get that.”

Joshua added: “I’m not blaming anyone by saying that but I didn’t get any impression that I was losing. That’s why when they announced the name I was kind of like ‘huh?’ It was all just ‘that’s it, keep on going’.

“So I was jabbing and jabbing. It was hard to accept afterwards. Now when I watch it back I think he won by three rounds, that’s probably from the ninth onwards,” He said.

Joshua has now teamed with Mexican trainer Robert Garcia who joined Angel Fernandez to form his training team for the second fight against the Ukrainian.

The former super-featherweight would be aiming to help Joshua, 32, to reclaim his IBF, WBA (super), IBO and WBO titles from Oleksandr Usyk, 35, having lost to the Ukrainian fighter in September 2021.