Is Anthony Joshua DITCHING long-time coach Rob McCracken? Footage emerges of heavyweight star working with Mike Tyson’s former trainer, who confirms heavyweight is looking for fresh ideas after Oleksandr Usyk loss
- Anthony Joshua suffered a comprehensive defeat by Oleksandr Usyk last month
- He tried to outbox the slick fighter and his game plan came under criticism
- Many called on AJ to seek a fresh coach and heavyweight has been in contact
- Mike Tyson’s former coach confirmed that he had been approached about it
Anthony Joshua is seeking fresh ideas and a new coach to revive his career following the defeat by Oleksandr Usyk, it has been revealed.
Initially, it was thought that AJ would remain fiercely loyal to his long-time coach Rob McCracken despite their game plan coming in for plenty of criticism in defeat by the Ukrainian.
But now it has been confirmed that the former Olympic champion met a high-profile trainer in the US and footage has emerged of them working together.
Anthony Joshua was filmed to Mike Tyson’s former coach Ronnie Shields during their session
AJ put some work in after watching footage of his defeat by Oleksandr Usyk
Rob McCracken (left) came under fire for his game plan for Joshua’s defeat last month
Ronnie Shields, who works with Jermall Charlo and used to coach the likes of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Arturo Gatti, revealed that ‘team AJ reached out’.
And subsequently footage emerged of AJ in the gym chatting to Shields and working out with a mask on.
Shields told Thaiboxingvoice: ‘They reached out to me and they asked if I would be interested in taking a look at AJ and that he wanted to come down to Texas and see if things would work out between him and I.
‘I said, “No problem, I would love to see if we had a connection together”.’
At this stage it is not clear whether Joshua is planning to retain the services of McCracken or if their working relationship has run its course. He may also have to relocate to the US if he decides on a new set-up.
But Shields said his meeting with the British star went well and even led to some pad work to explain some of his ideas.
Ronnie Shields (right) trained Mike Tyson and was able to give Joshua some recent pointers
Shields revealed that he went through footage of the Usyk fight with AJ and gave advice
Joshua was well beaten by Usyk in their showdown at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
He went on: ‘It would be great to get him to reclaim the world titles he lost to Usyk and I think I’ve got the capabilities to help him do that.
‘For the last two days everything seemed to go well. The first day we talked for about three or four hours and when he came back today we did some light pad work to show him everything we talked about.
‘You have to be able to show a fighter what you really mean and how he should do things. We did some light work and I put him through some drills to help him understand what I’d told him the day before.
‘For me it’s about the game plan. We talked about a lot of stuff and we watched a few rounds of the Usyk fight together. I pointed out a few things that he should have done but he didn’t do.
‘I think our chemistry was really good but I’m not going to lose sleep over [whether he chooses me].’
Joshua, pictured here training with McCracken, has now done pad work with Shields
It was widely accepted that AJ’s team made a mistake in having him try to outbox the slick Usyk and he should have used his weight and power advantage to bully his opponent.
The pair will rematch and Joshua will have the chance to win back his titles, which could set up the huge domestic showdown with Tyson Fury that many fans are desperate to see.
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