Following Anthony Joshua’s Sept. 25 loss to Oleksandr Usyk, much has been made of what he’ll do trainer-wise for their rematch in 2022.
One person to throw his hat into the ring, at least willing to work with Joshua a bit, is rival heavyweight Tyson Fury, who says that he’d legitimately be willing to team up with his trainer Sugarhill Steward and work with AJ for the second Usyk fight.
“I know that if I trained Joshua, me and Sugarhill trained him for this next fight, he’d definitely beat Oleksandr Usyk,” Fury told BT Sport’s Steve Bunce recently. “That’s a fact, and I would be open to doing it. I’d be very open for me and Sugarhill to train him. I’ll do it for free, because I don’t need the money and I won’t take his money, anyway. But we’d take on that challenge, no problem. I guarantee he’d beat (Usyk).”
In a long, abnormally fiery and direct interview, Anthony Joshua told iFL TV’s Kugan Cassius that he would be willing to have Fury in the gym.
“He’s more than welcome to come through the door! He can even spar with me, as well, you know what I mean? I need a coach who’s lived it, breathed it, so it’ll be perfect. That’ll be the easiest way to get him in the ring,” Joshua said. “I’ll set up a camera, Eddie (Hearn) will be there with a few cameras running on Facebook and YouTube.”
He continued, “Tyson can come and watch me train, 100 percent. Sparring ain’t fighting, so he’s more than welcome to step into the gym and give me some tips and shit like that. I ain’t fighting him next, anyways, so he ain’t got nothing to worry about.”
Joshua’s focus right now is not on replacing Rob McCracken as trainer, but learning from different coaches. He’s visited with Ronnie Shields, Virgil Hunter, and others, and we’ll see what he winds up doing ahead of his expected spring rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
