Anthony Joshua wishes he had linked up with veteran trainer Derrick James much earlier in his career.
The former heavyweight titlist from London recently opened up about his time so far with Dallas, Texas-based James, while offering some critical remarks on his former trainers, particularly his longtime coach Robert McCracken. Joshua, 33, praised McCracken but claimed that the head of Great Britain’s Olympic boxing program never properly taught him defense. He cited, half-jokingly, as evidence the famously misshapen nose on retired super middleweight champion Carl Froch, who was trained by McCracken.
“Yes, yeah,” Joshua responded when asked if he wishes he met James early on the pro ranks on The Boxing News Podcast with Matt Christie. “Rob’s a really good coach. The only thing I say is that, look at Froch’s nose. He (McCracken just didn’t teach me defense. At heavyweight boxing, the level of competition I was facing at that stage in my career, I was getting hit way too much with clean shots, in my opinion.”
Joshua has been in a rebuilding phase ever since he suffered two consecutive defeats to unified champion Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua paired up with James, ahead of his comeback fight against Jermaine Franklin in the spring. Joshua defeated Michigan’s Franklin by unanimous decision in a performance that was widely characterized as humdrum.
Now Joshua is looking to go 2-0 this year when he takes on longtime rival Dillian Whyte on Aug. 12 at The O2 Arena in London.
Under James, Joshua feels he is being given the kind of direction and care that was missing from his training camps in the past. James is also the head trainer of undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., Frank Martin, and Ryan Garcia. With McCracken, Joshua felt that his ex-coach spent too much time developing fighters on the Olympic boxing squad.
“As much as I liked everyone, it was just like, Derrick reminds me of Rob but more invested,” Joshua said. “What I wanted to create with Rob—imagine this is our gym here. This is the Rob McCracken Academy. He’s the headhunter. He’ll sit back. He’ll watch [and tell a fighter], ‘Left hand’s low.’ Joe Cordina’s on that bag. [McCracken’s] the overseer. He sits down with his team. That’s what it’s like with Derrick, I feel like he’s got Garcia, he’s got Errol, he’s got a system. Rob was too committed to the Olympic team. Not the pro team. That’s why I wish—again, I gave Rob my best years and now I have to dig deep to get them back again.”
“I feel like I went through a lot,” Joshua continued. “I went through a process where I had to develop as a fighter. I knew I couldn’t just survive. I just had to unlearn a lot of things. With Ruiz II, I thought it was a great performance. Personally, didn’t get hit, didn’t lose a round, became two-time champion of the world. …Then I came up against Usyk and I realized that, ‘Ah sh!t, it’s true you need a bit of aggression. You can’t just keep ’em off.
“With Franklin, it was sh!t, but I’ve been through so much and I’m still going through so much. … I know it wasn’t as good as what it could be. But not because of any reason. It was that I was going through a lot. I think I’ve cleared all of that off from my conscience.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.