Anthony Joshua’s new trainer Derrick James admits he laughed at the boxer’s tactics for his last fight against Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua lost to the Ukrainian for a second time six months ago under ex-head coach Robert Garcia in a much-improved performance from their inaugural encounter.
But James wasn’t impressed by the game planning and was left questioning Joshua’s approach during the Saudi showdown.
“When I saw him in the Usyk fight, I thought, ‘What the heck is he doing?’ I’m laughing,” James told the DAZN Boxing Show.
When asked whether he could have done a better job with Joshua, the American replied: “Yeah, because I train two left-hand fighters,” in reference to star students Errol Spence Jr and Frank Martin.
James will get the chance to show off what he and AJ have been working on when the Brit returns to the ring on April 1 against Jermaine Franklin.
This will be Joshua’s first fight with James since linking up a few weeks ago.
Joshua is currently training across the pond at James’ gym in Dallas, Texas.
He split with Garcia after just four months of working together following a series of controversial comments from the 2011 Ring Magazine trainer of the year.
The most controversial of which being claims that AJ had “mentally defeated himself” in the second Usyk fight.
Joshua then went on a tour of America in search of a new trainer and chose James over Virgil Hunter, whom he also visited during his trial runs.
Opening up on why he took the job, James continued: “I really took this job because I feel like I can help him. Everybody feels like they can help him, it’s all about strategies.
“The initial things that you work on are things that are not even physical. You can’t even see it. It’s things that are really small, and you build from there. When you work on one thing in particular, everything blossoms behind that. Spending time together, listening to him talk, and then filling those spaces that need to be filled.”
Speaking at the launch press conference for the Franklin fight in London, James added: “The world hasn’t seen the best of Anthony Joshua. I know Franklin is a really good fighter, so we’re taking this very serious. I think he [Joshua] will be the guy he is supposed to be on the night.”
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