After some time to reflect on Anthony Joshua’s latest performance against Oleksandr Usyk, where he gave a valiant effort yet still came up short, his trainer Robert Garcia talks to Fight Hype about his thoughts on what took place and what’s to come. Check out some of what Garcia had to say below.
Garcia on Joshua getting credit for performing better against Usyk in their rematch despite the loss
“I’m very happy and proud of what we did and what Anthony did. Angel Fernandez, myself, we were both on the same page training Anthony and Anthony went out there and did — not enough, obviously, because we didn’t take the win — but he did what very few expected.
“Everybody thought it was just gonna be another easy fight for Usyk but it wasn’t. I think he did much better than he did the first time, that’s what everybody’s telling me, everybody was giving us credit for that, so I’m very happy. You know, I hate to lose but I’m happy and proud of what we did together being my first fight with Anthony against Usyk — it was difficult, it was gonna be hard. But we almost pulled it off, man. We almost had it. But ifs don’t count anymore...
“If we go into this Fury fight, I do believe and I will push Anthony a little bit harder. You know, this is my first fight with him, you also have to be careful with how hard you push ‘em because you don’t know the bodies, you don’t know the fighters. Some fighters react different, some fighters don’t. Some fighters fighters don’t like it that much. So I didn’t get a chance to know him that good.
“I would have preferred something like two or three fights before fighting something as big as Usyk. Just like right now, going straight into Fury — I would prefer two or three fights, get to learn more from me, I learn more from him, I teach him different things and then two or three fights from now he’ll have a much better performance. But Anthony loves those challenges too, that’s why he went straight into the rematch with Usyk.
“Now they’re talking about Fury and he accepted it right away ‘cause he loves those challenges. I’ve been talking to the management team and we’re all on board to take the fight. We accepted the challenge and let’s hope it happens.”
On if he expects Fury to be an even tougher fight than Olekandr Usyk
“You know what, it’s going to be difficult — maybe tougher, but not as difficult. Usyk, his style, being lefty, and being that angles that he uses, that makes it difficult. Tougher (against Fury) because just bigger, stronger, heavier — yes, it’s going to be a tougher fight just because of the size, the weight. But Anthony has great speed, great power, so I think he’ll land more on Fury than he was able to on Usyk.”
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