By Craig Page: Trainer Robert Garcia says his words got twisted from an interview that he did with a Spanish site and when they translated to English, it made it seem like he was saying negative things about his fighter Anthony Joshua.
Robert says he didn’t say the things the way they were translated, and he feels that they made it seem like he was “talking s***” about Joshua following his loss to IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk on August 20th. Spanish site IZQUIERDAZO released the video and a full raw transcript of the interview with Garcia to verify the quotes.
The thing is, we don’t know whether Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) believes what Robert was quoted as saying, particularly the part where he supposedly said he was “mentally defeated” after shooting his load in the ninth round against Usyk.
Also, one of the quotes attributed to Robert about him saying that he was just trying to motivate Joshua from the tenth round because he wouldn’t listen to instructions by that point looks bad.
It makes Joshua sound like he was falling apart when Usyk rallied in the championship rounds.
If Joshua does believe the comments, it wouldn’t be surprising if Robert Garcia is quietly fired and replaced by a new coach to take over as the co-trainer to work alongside Angel Fernandez.
Even if Joshua doesn’t believe the quotes, he might be thinking about swapping Robert out in favor of a new coach because he needs more technical skills and stamina to beat the better heavyweights in the division.
It’s fair to say that we probably saw the best that Robert could do as a coach for Joshua with him fighting competitively for nine rounds and then mentally falling apart from the tenth round on.
Joshua needs an Emanuel Steward type of coach that can resurrect his career in the same way he did with Wladimir Klitschko.
“There’s been a few that I’ve read that they’ve actually sent to me, ‘Did you really say that?’ I haven’t talked to nobody, especially in English. You’re the first person I’ve talked to,” said Robert Garcia to ESNEWS in denying that he made the quotes attributed to him in recent articles about Anthony Joshua.
“I talked to a Spanish [site] that I know, so I gave them an interview. But from Spanish translated to English, they make it seem like ‘Robert is talking s***’ pretty much,” Garcia continued.
“But, no, I would never say that about my fighters. I’ve never done it before, and I never will. Plus, Anthony was fighting a great fight. What bothers a little, and we know what boxing is.
“We see that stuff from haters. But if you see it from reported, ‘Breaking news’ and s*** like that, then that kind of bothers you because there are people out there who might be a part of the team that actually do believe it. That actually think that it is true.
“Right now, with social media, you can switch things around, and everybody believes this and everybody believes that. ‘Did you read this, did you read that?’ It happens a lot.
“I’ve been seeing stuff about people I haven’t talked to at all. There’s only one person I talked to from Mexico, but it wasn’t where they made it seem.
“Words in Spanish translated to English, it’s a big difference, but it’s the way it is. It bothers a little, but it’s not the end. If a fighter believes that and haven’t talked to Anthony, so I’m not saying Anthony.
“If something like that happens and the fighter believes that and doesn’t want to get the real story, then that’s his problem too. If they read that, ‘Is this what I’m reading? Is it true?’ No.
“It’s actually a good story, but translated to English the way people do, they make it seem like I’m talking bad [about Joshua],” said Garcia.
