Former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will be working with Ben Davison, the former trainer of WBC champion Tyson Fury, for a planned fight with tough contender Otto Wallin.
According to Chris McKenna of the Daily Star, the fight is a one-off change of trainer, with head coach Derrick James approving the move. Joshua plans to work with James for future fights.
The contest with Wallin is going to be part of a huge event taking place on December 23 in Saudi Arabia.
Based on the logistics, and James training other fighters for upcoming bouts, it made sense for Joshua to use Davison in this instance.
Davis led Fury to a very tough decision win over Wallin in 2019.
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, recently explained the move.
“AJ is with Derrick James, 100 percent. But Ben is a fantastic coach, and I think that has the kind of mind that AJ would tick with,” Hearn told Boxing Social.
“AJ is the kind of guy who doesn’t like to be out of camp for too long, and there is a chance he fights in December. So if that’s the case, he wanted these couple of weeks just to sharpen his tools before he heads into camp in Dallas with Derrick.”
Joshua had teamed up with James earlier this year – after parting ways with Robert Garcia after one fight. James led the British star to twelve round decision victory over Jermaine Franklin in April and then a one-punch knockout of Robert Helenius in August.
For the majority of Joshua’s career, he was trained by Robert McCracken. Joshua went in another direction in the aftermath of his first defeat at the hands of Oleksandr Usyk in 2021.