Robert Garcia Believes his Instruction Can Bring Anthony Joshua Victory
In his next at bat, former unified heavyweight champion Anthony “AJ” Joshua (24-2, 22 KO’s) will attempt to recapture his titles. When he does so, he will enter the battle, against WBA Super, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, with new trainer Robert Garcia in his corner.
Last year, there was a fair amount of attention placed on Joshua’s search for a new chief second. Following his American excursion, AJ clearly selected Garcia to head his corner. When Joshua faces the challenge of Usyk, it will be an immediate rematch and the first bout with Robert Garcia helming his corner.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Naturally there will be those spectators who can’t believe that their short time together will manifest in a great first outing. Yet, as Garcia explained to IFL TV, he is fully expectant to have a fantastic show on August 20.
“This is not the first time that something like this happens to me. If you guys go back to my record as a trainer, you know earlier in my career, I got in Brian Viloria, who is a former Olympian and a former champion, but had already lost, had already been beaten and nobody gave a dollar for him. Nobody really cared about him and he came to me and we trained and we won a title together. So that was the first sign of the kind of energy that I bring to my fighters.
“Then came Marcos Maidana who actually wanted to retire after losing to Devon Alexander. He lost, he didn’t want to fight anymore, he wanted to retire. I brought him back and look at the fights he gave! He beat Broner, he had two great fights with Mayweather. And the most recent one that I could say is Abner Mares…he came to me and in our first fight together, we fought for the world title against Jesus Cuellar who nobody gave us a chance and Abner beat him.”
“So, we’re going into the same situation with Anthony. If the fighter believes in the team, in the trainer, then anything is possible. That happened with Abner Mares, that happened with Viloria, that happened with Maidana, so why wouldn’t it be able to happen with Anthony?”
With this handsome track record, it would be hard to simply write off Garcia’s words bluster or nonsense. Having said that, it will be very interesting to see how this plays out come fight night. Regardless of the outcome, 3Kings Boxing will be here to report the news.
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By: Bakari Simpson
