Derrick James, the trainer of Nigerian-born British boxer, Anthony Joshua said he was happy with the performance of his client during the heavyweight bout against American boxer Jermaine Franklin.
Though Anthony Joshua won the bout which took place at the 02 Arena on April 1, his performance in the fight has attracted negative criticism against the Briton.
Many believed that Joshua’s style was boring while others criticized the British boxer for not knocking out the American boxer who is not a highly-rated fighter like other A-listers in the heavyweight category.
OsunDaily News recalls that Anthony Joshua had Franklin under control for the entire twelve rounds, and all the judges judged in favor of the Briton at the end of the night. Despite his powerful jab and efforts, commentators afterward described the Briton as timid.
In an interview with the DAZN Boxing Show, Derrick James stated his happiness with Joshua’s performance and debunked any theories that he had changed and was now just following orders.
“I was happy because he did exactly what I wanted him to do. People said they wanted to see him do this or that, that wasn’t in my plan, because it’s like this, when getting with somebody new, you have to simplify to where he’s not thinking about it, he can just do it naturally”, he said.
“So people say ‘the same old AJ’ – nah you didn’t see the same old AJ. Because of the movements and everything he did to take away from Jermaine Franklin.”
“He’s a tough fighter and he’s gonna fight you to the end. But we never let him be in the fight.”
Following two defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022, the narrative ahead of the fight was that Joshua needed an early knockout to re-establish himself on the heavyweight scene.
Hence, Joshua was heavily criticized for his below-expectation performance even though he won the bout. In reaction, James urged Joshua’s critics to direct the criticism to him as the boxer’s trainer because that was his strategy and he didn’t care how the crowd wanted the fight to end.
“If anybody wants to talk about Joshua, talk about me. Because I did the game plans, I did the strategy. He just did what I asked him to do … Be mad at me, talk about me, ’cause it was all strategy, it was all game plan. He followed it to a tee”, the trainer said.
