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Robert Garcia thinks Anthony Joshua could benefit from a change of scenery.
The well-regarded trainer from Riverside, California, linked up with the former heavyweight titlist from London earlier this year ahead of the latter’s rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia. Garcia, in tandem with Joshua’s longtime second Angel Fernandez, helped put together a strategy for Joshua to defeat the skilled southpaw from Ukraine. In the end, it was not enough, as Usyk would go on to win on points to retain his WBO, WBA, and IBF titles.
Now Joshua is back on the hunt for a new trainer. Garcia apparently is still in the running, but there are other candidates at play as well. Joshua was recently spotted working with Virgil Hunter in the San Francisco area and, most recently, with Derrick James, the trainer of Errol Spence Jr. and Jermell Charlo, in Dallas.
Garcia, who made some surprisingly critical comments about Joshua after the Usyk loss, believes the choice of trainer is secondary to a far more paramount concern: locale. In a recent interview, Garcia explained that he believes Joshua needs to base his training camp in the United States, away from the comforts of home, in order to progress as a fighter. For Garcia, that means training out of a gym like his own, the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, where a mix of contenders and former and current fighters abound. Garcia, who travelled to England to work with Joshua ahead of the Usyk fight, trains junior bantamweight champion Bam Rodriguez and his brother, fellow titlist Joshua Franco, former junior welterweight titlist Jose Ramirez, and undefeated 140-pounder Lindolfo Delgado. Garcia says it is only by surrounding himself with elite talent and being a role model to younger fighters that Joshua can become a titlist again.
“My personal advice, and I told him (Joshua) and all of his team, right before I left the next day … I told them it doesn’t matter who it is (trainer), it doesn’t matter if it’s me again, he needs to change his camp around,” Garcia told ESNews. “He needs to go to the United States, he needs to train in the gym, where he’s got Joshua Franco, where he’s got Lindolfo Delgado, you got Bam, you got Jose Ramirez, you know, you’ve got young guys that are actually looking up to you.
“And you cannot say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to spar because I’m tired.’ ‘Oh, I didn’t sleep enough last night, so I don’t want to train today.’ Then the young fighters that want to be like you are going to see something and [say] ‘that’s not a world champion.’ You’ve got to give them an example. You’ve got to be better than them so they can be what you are now.”
“That’s what Anthony Joshua needs,” Garcia continued. “It’s not about Derrick James doing a better job, Virgil Hunter doing a better job, me doing better than his previous trainer. It’s about him getting out of his comfort zone and not being the boss and being, and doing what he’s taught to do at a place where he isn’t comfortable. That’s what he needs. That’s what he needs. He’s very talented. His power is insane. And he needs to believe in himself. He can’t go by what he sees on social media.”
Joshua is expected to return to the ring in the spring, possibly against Dillian Whyte. Garcia seems to think that he would not have the appetite to train Joshua if it meant having to leave his California base for England and because of his outstanding commitments to his other fighters. Garcia expects both Ramirez and Rodriguez to have important fines scheduled in the same period.
“Anthony called me and told me what he was doing (working out with various trainers), and I respect it,” Garcia said. “I understand, you know, the way he is seeing things and honestly, I wish him the best, because even if it was me again—I understand they are trying to fight sometime in the spring, so that will be sometime in March or April, and having to go to camp in England it will be very difficult for me because I know that Jose [Ramirez] is fighting during that time.
“Do you think I’m going to leave Jose … Jose fighting [WBC 140-pound titlist] Regis [Prograis], which is a very f—–g difficult fight, but that’s what Jose wants so that’s what we’re going to do to have him ready for that fight. Bam is going to fight around the same time.”