Joshua has been subjected to &#8216;brain fatiguing&#8217; training for his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk under a new coaching regime.
Anthony Joshua is a changed man. Not physically &#8211; the trademark sculpted physique will be once more present and correct when he steps back into the ring for the first time in almost a year on Saturday for his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk.
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But in his mentality, Joshua insists he is a very different animal now to the one that succumbed so meekly at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last September. And it is no exaggeration to say that his hopes of winning back his three world title belts in Saudi Arabia depend on him being good to his word.
There is certainly a feeling of renewal around Team Joshua. He has a new coach, for one thing, the Mexican-American Robert Garcia, who has subjected Joshua to a &#8220;brain fatiguing&#8221; training regime alongside Angel Fernandez, mentor and co-trainer for the past two years.
Garcia, 46, has been in charge of Joshua for eight months, having replaced his previous coach Robert McCracken, who had guided him since his amateur days, and is making his presence felt, certainly in terms of his fighter&#8217;s approach.
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&#8220;We have to let Anthony Joshua off the leash for this fight &#8211; we have to,&#8221; Garcia, a former world champion himself, told Telegraph Sport. &#8220;This fight is all about mindset. This is the hurt business. Usyk is a very smart fighter, and Anthony has shown us that he has great power, size and strength and we have been instilling his belief in his ability to go out there and hurt opponents.
&#8220;We want him to go out there and impose himself. We know that he got the plan wrong the first time, and this time he has to be more aggressive.&#8221;
Garcia has been working with Joshua at Loughborough University&#8217;s elite performance centre, the fighter having previously been based at the English Institute of Sport at Sheffield. The pair have not always seen eye to eye in camp, but the respect for each other&#8217;s thinking and strategy is clearly there.
Joshua sparred hard in Loughborough against four southpaws he flew in to prepare him for the unbeaten Usyk, before leaving to acclimatise to the 40-degree heat of Jeddah three weeks ago. Garcia was happy with what he witnessed.
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Joshua has explained that he &#8220;respects Garcia highly, because of his name and credentials and experience&#8221; but added that he &#8220;can only get my confidence from my preparation and sparring. A coach can tell a fighter a million good things but if he doesn’t do them then it’s pointless.&#8221;
Even so, there have been changes. &#8220;Me and Rob [McCracken] would walk in and do skipping, shadow boxing, pads and the bag. He would obviously say things like ‘hands up’ or ‘slip there’.&#8221;
There is a different way of communicating, too, and a switch in emphasis when it comes to tactics.
&#8220;Angel and Robert Garcia break things down more. I might get told, ‘In this round, perfect that f&#8212;&#8212; jab. The goal in this round is to get that jab popping. The next goal is to tilt more when you throw the right hand.’
&#8220;It’s more tactical like that, so there is reasoning behind the method. It’s a lot to remember, and it can be a bit brain fatiguing, but nothing will fatigue me more than being in that ring and going through it for 12 rounds, for real&#8230;so I have to go through it.
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&#8220;This time around, rather than taking control I learnt that what I want is not as important as what the coach wants. I am a sponge, I will learn from anyone so I let them control the environment.&#8221;
Usyk is changed, too &#8211; heavier than for the first fight in London, perhaps in the hope that he can seal an early finish to the sequel. Joshua knows that he must play to his strengths in Saudi, even if he goes out on his shield, and his team believe he has it in him to do so.
What, though, must be going through Joshua&#8217;s when that first bell tolls? &#8220;Educated pressure from the start,&#8221; explained Garcia. &#8220;Then more pressure. It&#8217;s about finding the instinct he had in his early career, and getting that back. We want him to go in there to hurt Usyk. Back him up, hurt his body, be intent on creating damage.&#8221;
There is a argument that Joshua should have embraced change sooner, and that he became too set in his ways in the comfortable, familiar surroundings of Sheffield. Frazer Clarke, a team-mate of Joshua&#8217;s in the elite amateur set-up in Sheffield, but now also training with Joshua at Loughborough, told Telegraph Sport that the preparation has been first-class.
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&#8220;I was in the gym every day with him &#8211; I don&#8217;t think I missed a session of his. I&#8217;ve been brutally honest with him the whole time. He&#8217;s very motivated for this fight but it&#8217;s good to be in there around Robert Garcia, around his other trainer Angel Fernandez, and mentally he seemed really good.
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&#8220;I think Robert and Angel are a good combination, they&#8217;ve filled him with confidence, and the message is: &#8216;Just go out there and be AJ, don&#8217;t try and do anything that’s not AJ. Be educated, pressure and just give it your all. Be a destroyer&#8217;. If he can do that, however awkward Usyk is, AJ can swing the contest his way.
&#8220;Usyk is a southpaw, and he&#8217;s very clever, but he has two arms, two legs and he&#8217;s got a jaw like everyone else, and if Anthony Joshua hits you on the jaw once, he&#8217;s going to hurt you. But if he lets the flurries go, and he pins you on the ropes, and holds you there, let me tell you now, you&#8217;ve got to be superhuman to withstand it.&#8221;
Joshua has already proved his inner warrior spirit once in his career, winning back his belts from Andy Ruiz after suffering one of the biggest shocks in heavyweight boxing history in June 2019. Can he do it again, and become a three-time world champion against the masterful, tricky Usyk? The answer to that question lies in his head, as much as his hands.
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