Anthony Joshua tells Mike Tyson’s former coach to turn him into ‘a dog’ for Oleksandr Usyk rematch

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Anthony Joshua has told Mike Tyson’s former trainer Ronnie Shields to bring out the “dog” in him ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.

Joshua’s tactics in his unanimous points defeat to Usyk were criticised following the fight at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and the former heavyweight champion has been visiting new trainers in the US.

The Briton spent time with Canelo Alvarez’s trainer Eddie Reynoso and was also pictured with veteran coach Shields, who worked with former heavyweight champions Tyson and Evander Holyfield.

And according to Shields, Joshua has been seeking advice on how he can bring out the aggressive side of his game ahead of his second meeting with Usyk next year.

“He told me, ‘Listen, I know people don’t think I’m a dog. I’m gonna be a dog in this next fight.’ And that’s his words,” Shields said to the ThaBoxingVoice podcast.

“He told me, ‘I just need you to show me how to be the best dog you can teach me to be.’

“That answered the question for me because my thing to him was, ‘Why did you box the whole time?’, and he said he thought he could out-box him, and that was the game plan.

“To me that was the wrong fight, now he knows that was the wrong fight. To teach a man to be a dog he has to have the dog instincts in him already.”

Joshua has been trained by Rob McCracken throughout his professional career but his stint in the US appears to indicate that the 32-year-old is prepared to go in a different direction.

Shields added: “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’. He said, ‘European boxing is different from boxing in the US.’ He realised he had to come to US to get something different…

“I guess he didn’t feel it was the right [game plan vs Usyk] so he wanted to make a change.”