Anthony Joshua Wishes He Linked Up With Derrick James Earlier In His Career

Anthony Joshua wishes he started to work with Derrick James earlier in his career.

Joshua has gone through a few different trainers but recently started to work with James and he says the training is much different. He also took aim at his former coach, Robert McCracken while praising James.

“Yes, yeah,” Joshua responded when asked if he wishes he met James early on the pro ranks on The Boxing News Podcast with Matt Christie (h/t BoxingScene). “Rob’s a really good coach. The only thing I say is that, look at Froch’s nose. He (McCracken) just didn’t teach me defense. At heavyweight boxing, the level of competition I was facing at that stage in my career, I was getting hit way too much with clean shots, in my opinion.”

With Derrick James, Anthony Joshua feels like they are coming up with good game plans for each fight. He also believes James pays more attention to detail and to him rather than McCracken who also focused on developing Olympians.

“As much as I liked everyone, it was just like, Derrick reminds me of Rob but more invested,” Joshua said. “What I wanted to create with Rob—imagine this is our gym here. This is the Rob McCracken Academy. He’s the headhunter. He’ll sit back. He’ll watch [and tell a fighter], ‘Left hand’s low.’ Joe Cordina’s on that bag. [McCracken’s] the overseer. He sits down with his team. That’s what it’s like with Derrick, I feel like he’s got Garcia, he’s got Errol, he’s got a system. Rob was too committed to the Olympic team. Not the pro team. That’s why I wish—again, I gave Rob my best years and now I have to dig deep to get them back again.”

“I feel like I went through a lot,” Joshua continued. “I went through a process where I had to develop as a fighter. I knew I couldn’t just survive. I just had to unlearn a lot of things. With Ruiz II, I thought it was a great performance. Personally, didn’t get hit, didn’t lose a round, became two-time champion of the world. …Then I came up against Usyk and I realized that, ‘Ah sh!t, it’s true you need a bit of aggression. You can’t just keep ’em off. With Franklin, it was sh!t, but I’ve been through so much and I’m still going through so much. … I know it wasn’t as good as what it could be. But not because of any reason. It was that I was going through a lot. I think I’ve cleared all of that off from my conscience.”

With James at the helm, Joshua beat Jermaine Franklin last time out and will now face Dillian Whyte.

Do you think Anthony Joshua is better under Derrick James?