By Jack Tiernan: Anthony Joshua’s new trainer Derrick James reveals that AJ has been learning from watching Errol Spence Jr workout at his gym.
James, who just took over as the new coach for the two-time former heavyweight champion Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), is rebuilding him to go after his third world title.
It helps Joshua to be around Jame’s fighters Spence and Frank Martin, as it gives him a chance to watch how those two train, so he can help improve.
AJ will be fighting for the first time with Derrick in his corner on April 1st against Jermaine Franklin at the O2 Arena in London.
This is a fight that Joshua cannot afford to lose because if he gets beaten by Franklin, he’ll be viewed as a lost cause.
“They’re good, they talk,” said Derrick James to the DAZN Boxing Show when asked how Anthony Joshua gets along with Errol Spence Jr in his gym. “Errol asks him a couple of questions. When Errol is hitting the bag, working out, AJ is watching him.
“It’s like a mutual respect. That’s what most guys need to get to the next level or get that thing back that they had before. Even with Errol, he sees him doing some things, and they both work off each other.
“In the last four years, there’s been no gym with two unified champs, especially with an undisputed champ, especially with two champs period in the same gym. Frank [Martin] is right there at #1 [at lightweight], so he’s right there to so to be inspired by all that stuff right there.
“I really took this job because I feel like I can help him,” said James about his believing he can help Anthony Joshua. “Everybody feels like they can help him. It’s all about strategies.
“Until we can get everything down, it’s about the strategy to get him in his space where he can do what he needs to do and not get hit until he gets accustomed to everything.
“Yeah, because I train two left hand fighters,” said James when asked if he believes he can train Joshua to defeat Oleksandr Usyk if they were to fight again. “When I saw him the Usyk fight, I thought, ‘What the heck is he doing?’ I’m laughing.
“The stuff that you work on are things that you can’t see initially. The initial things that you work on are things that are not even physical. You can’t even see it. It’s things that are really small, and you build from there. When you work on one thing in particular, everything blossoms behind that.
“Spending time together, listening to him talk, and then filling those spaces that need to be filled,” James said about Joshua.