By Charles Brun: Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in the U.S and has visited two gyms, one of them being Canelo Alvarez’s gym belonging to trainer Eddy Reynoso in San Diego, California.
With Joshua’s career hanging in the balance heading into his next fight, it would appear that he’s desperate to try and salvage things.
Not surprisingly, these visits by Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) have many boxing fans believing AJ is on the verge of finally dumping coach Rob McCracken and go with a new trainer ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk next March.
Nothing has been said by Joshua or his promoter Eddie Hearn whether they’re shopping for a new coach to lead him into his rematch with the talented Usyk, but it does look suspicious that’s what he appears to be doing.
Will a new coach help Joshua?
After Joshua lost to Andy Ruiz Jr. in a massive upset in June 2019, he resisted the calls from boxing fans for him to give McCracken the royal boot and go with some new blood to coach him.
Instead, Joshua kept McCracken and adopted the Wladimir Klitschko style of fighting for his rematch with an out-of-shape Ruiz Jr, easily defeating the blob by a lopsided 12 round decision.
However, the Klitschko style probably won’t help Joshua against a talent like Usyk because he’s not going to overeat and blow up to 283 lbs the way that Ruiz Jr did following his victory.
Moreover, Usyk won’t skip training sessions the way Ruiz did, and he’s going to take the rematch seriously. Also, Usyk has a better set of wheels than Joshua, so if he chooses to recycle his Klitschko style of fighting against him, it’ll be child’s play for the Ukrainian master boxer to defeat that simplistic game plan.
Joshua is in the U.S after his humiliating defeat at the hands of former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) last month on September 25h at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in North London, England.
Usyk wore Joshua down, beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision and coming close to knocking him out in the 12th round.
Joshua took a lot of heat following that defeat due to his approach to the fight by trying to outbox the highly technical 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk.
Rather than Joshua using his size to steamroll over the smaller, weaker 6’3″, 221 lb Usyk, Joshua trimmed down to 240 lbs and tried to outbox him. The result was predictable.
Usyk took Joshua to school, outboxing him and wearing him down to the point where he fought fumes in the championship rounds.
Perhaps the unkindest cut of all is when Usyk had an exhausted and hurt Joshua pinned against the ropes in the last 20 seconds of the 12th round, pasting him with shots to the head.
If truth be told, Joshua appeared to be on the verge of being knocked out. Interestingly, some believe the round was halted six seconds early, which may have saved Joshua from being knocked out by Usyk.
Joshua needs an offensive coach
It might be a bad idea for Joshua to replace McCracken with Eddy Reynoso, though, as he’s more of a defensive coach, and that’s not what he needs. Canelo’s style of fighting would be ineffective against a fighter like Usyk.
Reynoso trains Andy Ruiz Jr., and, predictably, he would be hounding AJ night and day, asking for a trilogy fight if he chooses to join Eddy’s gym.
That would be an annoyance for Joshua and not something he would need at this point.
Virtually, no one wants to see a third fight between Joshua and Ruiz, especially how Andy looked in his last fight in getting dropped by 40-year-old Chris Arreola.
If you look at Canelo, he pressures his opponents and looks to bang them out with single punches. That style won’t work against Usyk, who would move around the ring and batter Joshua.
Canelo’s style wouldn’t work even in his 168-lb division if he fought the talented, super middleweights like David Benavidez, Carlos Gongora, or David Morrell Jr. instead of the weak paper champions Billy Joe Saunders, Rocky Fielding, and Callum Smith.
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