Anthony Joshua appears to have split from trainer Robert Garcia after promoter Eddie Hearn confirmed he is in the United States building a new team.
'AJ' split with long-term trainer Rob McCracken following his fist defeat by Oleksandr Usyk in the United Kingdom last year and linked up with experienced American Garcia. Joshua attempted to get his revenge over Usyk in August and went with a gameplan formulated by Garcia, but came up short by split decision in their Saudi Arabia rematch.
It appeared that Garcia had been critical of Joshua in a Spanish-speaking interview following the clash, which sparked fears of a split, but it was later ruled as a mistranslation of the American. However, Joshua's promoter Hearn confirmed in a brief update this weekend that his client is once again scouring the US for a new trainer.
"No, he is good. He is out in America at the moment working on his new team," Hearn said when providing an update on Joshua's situation in an interview with with Behind The Gloves. "He is getting that together and then we will get an opponent sorted and the date is pretty much locked in. It is pretty much sorted and we are looking forward to seeing him return."he
Joshua elected to make a bold move and ditch McCracken last year and relocate from his Sheffield base to Loughborough. This came after he toured the US while visiting a whole host of prospective new trainers, including Canelo Alvarez's coach Eddy Reynoso and Joshua Buatsi's coach Virgil Hunter.
He then elected to link up with Garcia, who was confident he could provide Joshua with a winning spark to secure redemption against Usyk and teamed up with Joshua's previous coach, Angel Fernandez. However, the pair were unable to deliver the winning formula on the night, despite the former two-time champion showing significant improvements.
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Now, Joshua has returned to the US in a similar way to look for a new training team and has reportedly been pictured working with Hunter again in Los Angeles. It is unclear exactly why he elected to walk away from the stewardship of Garcia, but Joshua claimed previously that he wanted to be a free spirit with regards to his corner.
He said last month: "I said to Robert and the team as well, 'I want to be a free spirit'. I locked myself down for 11 years with one coach and now I just feel like I just want to learn as much as possible. Because, honestly, if you know me closely, what it is is, it’s not the trainer, it’s about the fighter, what he has up here [in your head].
"I feel like I'm in a position where I'm able to work with anyone. So who knows what will happen next year? So, in terms of Robert Garcia, thank you for asking. I respect him a lot. He's a really good man, a really good trainer. Would I work with him again? Yeah, I would."
