- Briton lost his heavyweight titles to Ukrainian last year
- Rematch scheduled for 20 August in Saudi Arabia
Anthony Joshua has said he was let down by his corner when he lost his world heavyweight titles to Oleksandr Usyk last September. “There was a lot going on in the corner and that didn’t help,” Joshua said ahead of the rematch in Saudi Arabia on 20 August. “A corner is like a pitstop. So too many voices at once is definitely not good for anybody, not just me.”
Joshua believed he was winning the fight even though he was out-thought, outfought and, ultimately, outclassed by the smaller Usyk. Rather than being urged to increase the intensity of his work in the last rounds Joshua said the instructions from his corner were “more like: ‘Double jab, right, left hook.’ It wasn’t like: ‘Take the fight to this fucker. Listen, you’re losing the fight.’ No. A trainer needs to tap into that psychological aspect. Sometimes you need to tell your fighter that: ‘Yeah, we’re losing a world championship fight.’”