ROBERT GARCIA should have no problem convincing Anthony Joshua to follow his orders after the star trainer managed to keep Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in check.
AJ has added the California-based coach to his team for the must-win Oleksandr Usyk rematch hopefully happening this August.
The pair have plenty of work to do – after the 32-year-old ended his decade-long partnership with Team GB godfather Rob McCracken.
But Ricky Funez – the LA trainer of rising Brit star Hamzah Sheeraz – has a great story on how Garcia almost kept the wildchild offspring of Mexico legend Chavez Sr on the straight and narrow.
“I am very good friends with Robert and we talk about things a lot,” Funez said.
“I spoke to him a little while ago and he told me he was heading to London – he didn’t say why but he didn’t need to, I knew.
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“Me and Robert are good friends from when we were trying to train Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, who was a total rebel we had to try to control together.
“One day it was my turn to look after him and I went to knock on his hotel door and he was gone – he had jumped out of the second-floor window to go party, it took me two f***ing days to find him!”
The Watford KO artists tried to outbox the 35-year-old southpaw genius last September in Tottenham and was handed a punishing points defeat.
He has a chance to reclaim his WBA, IBF and WBO world titles but will need to recapture his old power and confidence.
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Funez revealed: “I believe they have a gameplan for Joshua to go forward and be more disciplined, put pressure on Usyk and eventually knock him out. That’s the way I see it.
“You cannot outbox a boxer like Usyk and Joshua’s confidence might be a little low after that defeat, he hasn’t seemed to have fully recovered since the loss to Andy Ruiz, he’s not as confident as he once was.
“We will wait to see if that comes back.”
Untested Spanish trainer Angel Fernandez has been training Joshua at his Loughborough University base since the McCracken divorce.
And the new addition of 47-year-old former-world-champ-turned-corner-king will take some getting used to – especially if Garcia offers up some of his own strong opinions and they clash.
“Both trainers are going to have to get in sync with each other quickly,” Funez said.
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“You cannot have a yes man in the team who does not give his opinion.
“Robert is an expert and he is going to want to win. I think Joshua will really open up his mind when he realises how knowledgeable Robert is.”
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