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October 21, 2021 – 12:05 pm hour
Will Ronnie Shields be the new Joshua?
After his shock loss to Oleksandr Usyk, former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua is looking for revenge. And in order to succeed in this, “AJ” wants to develop further in boxing. For that to work, the Briton is currently looking for a new coach in the US.
“AJ” visits Hunter, Reynoso and Shields
Mistakes Recognized, Lessons Learned: This is the message Anthony Joshua sent the audience after his defeat to Oleksandr Usyk. So that the same mistakes do not happen to him again in the rematch against the Ukrainian, the ousted Briton wants to set new points and develop boxing. A new coach is supposed to help him with that.
It remains unclear if Joshua will part with former coach Rob McCracken, but the 32-year-old has toured the US in the past few days and has made offers to other coaches. With Virgil Hunter, for example, with Canelo coach Eddie Reynoso and with Ronnie Shields, one of the biggest names in the field.
Shields has trained boxers like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Arturo Gatti during his coaching career. Anthony Joshua is already listed as a current intern on the US Wikipedia page. Cooperation has not yet been confirmed.
What’s certain: Joshua has been training under Shields for the past few days. The corresponding videos went viral on social media. The same coach also confirmed to “Thaboxingvoice” that Joshua had visited him.
Joshua suffered his second defeat as a pro against Usyk, often hitting in the air and looking confused.
Shields can imagine working together
“They asked if I’d be interested in taking a look at AJ and that he’d be interested in coming to Texas to see if it would be a good fit between him and me,” said Shields, who is candidly looking forward to working together. “It would be great to help him get the titles back. I think I have the skills to help him get them back.”
The coach revealed that they both discussed the fight against Usyk: “I showed him things he should have done but he didn’t.” Joshua admitted to him that he was trying to get Usyk out just because that was the game plan. “This was a wrong fight for me [für diesen Plan]. And now he also knows that it was a wrong fight.”
Joshua came to him with a simple request, Shields recalls: “He said to me, ‘Listen, I know people think I’m not a real fighter, but a pure boxer. But in the next fight I’ll be one a real fighter. I just want you to show me how to be a better fighter.'” (sport.de/ March)
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