Former heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Joshua is changing trainers for the Oleksandr Usyk rematch, according to US coach Ronnie Shields.
AJ is currently in America following his loss to the Ukrainian in September, and has been spotted in various gyms during his trip.
At the end of the Usyk fight, many pundits questioned his tactical approach as he attempted to outbox the smaller technical Usyk, rather than use his size and strength advantages.
Last week, AJ posted Snapchats showing himself visiting Joshua Buatsi in Virgil Hunter’s gym in Hayward, California.
Anthony Joshua to change his coach for Oleksandr Usyk rematch
On Sunday, October 17, a video emerged showing Joshua hanging out with Canelo Alvarez in Eddy Reynoso’s gym in San Diego, California.
Anthony Joshua to change his coach for Oleksandr Usyk rematch
On Tuesday, October 19, he was pictured with Texas-based trainer Shields, who has given an interview and confirmed AJ was doing so because he is looking for a new coach.
“It was them who reached out to me,” Shields told ThaBoxingVoice.
“They reached out to me and they asked me would I be interested in taking a look at AJ and he would like to come down to Texas and see if things could work out between him and I.
“I said, ‘Yeah, no problem, I would love to take a look at him, love to see if we can mesh together.’
“It would be great to get him to reclaim his world titles that he lost to Usyk and I think I’ve got the capabilities to help him to do that.
“In the last two days, everything seemed to go well. The first day was just all talk, we talked for about three or four hours.
“And when he came back today I told him I wanted to do just some light padwork with him just to show him everything we talked about.”
Shields continued: “We watched a few rounds of the Usyk fight together and I just pointed out some things that I thought he should’ve done that he didn’t do.
“We had a great talk yesterday, today was even greater. There’s something I showed him that he said, ‘Man, I was never taught to do this.’
“It surprises me that a guy who was heavyweight champion of the world don’t know certain things.
“Like he said, ‘European boxing is different from boxing in the United States.’ He realised that he had to come to the United States to get something different.”
Reflecting on the Usyk fight, he added: “Obviously it wasn’t the right game plan, I told him he didn’t fight like himself. I think he’s a much better fighter than what he showed in that Usyk fight.
“I watched a few rounds with him, I told him about certain things and he said, ‘Yeah man, that’s what we should’ve done, but we didn’t do it.’
“I don’t know what their game plan was, but obviously it wasn’t the right one and I guess he didn’t feel like it was the right one so this is why he wanted to make a change.”
Joshua’s current trainer Rob McCracken guided AJ to Olympic gold and professional world titles in 2008.
