By: Sean Cross
“I know who the new coach is,” says Eddie Hearn. DAZN His fighter, Anthony Joshua, is looking for a new trainer. “It’s really a very personal matter.” In other words, Hearn is going to let Joshua himself decide who the new face will be, even though the guy is rumored to be Derrick James. “I think Fighter has to announce that with the new team,” Hearn continued. “I’m going to talk a lot, I’m going to do a lot of interviews. I’m going to talk about the fight. Whatever the trainer is, if he’s a new guy, he’ll be the third trainer for Joshua to fight a lot.
That being said, as Hearn has made it clear, Joshua wants to cross the Atlantic again to train in the United States. “He’s going to train in America and start that camp next week, he’ll fly. So you guys will get the news soon,” he says. Hearn added: “The problem is in the UK, it can’t breathe. When he goes to America, people know him, but it’s like another world.” In the end, Hearn made it clear that he felt heading to state was the right move for the fighter. “I think it will be great for him. I think you will see a renewed Anthony Joshua.”
One mystery is when Joshua will return to the ring. “April 1 is our target date in London,” Hearn says. “I will go through the final list of opponents. We are almost ready. He’s excited.” Hearn indicated that he feels Joshua needs to return to heavyweight, so don’t expect a former titlist like Fury or Wilder or maybe even Joyce come springtime.
It seems like just yesterday Joshua was considered one of the few men who could, or eventually would, be the king of the heavyweight division. Since then, however, he has dropped two in a row to Ukrainian skill set Oleksandr Usyk. Neither battle was particularly close. Now he’s in the process of getting comfortable in the ring before trying to face one of the division’s biggest dogs again. With Usyk and Fury slated to fight at least once more and Deontay Wilder and Joshua’s old foe Andy Ruiz possibly fighting, plenty of big names await.
