Anthony Joshua savaged as Robert Garcia decision questioned before Oleksandr Usyk fight

Anthony Joshua has been ripped into by Christopher Lovejoy ahead of his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk. The American puncher believes ‘AJ’ lacks the ‘dog’ to beat Usyk and shouldn’t need to hire a new coach to try and unlock it.

After losing to the Ukrainian in September, the Watford powerhouse axed long-time trainer Rob McCracken and went on a tour of US gyms in search of a new head coach. Among those he visited were Virgil Hunter, Eddy Reynoso, Ronnie Shields, and Robert Garcia, with Joshua picking the latter as his new mentor. Under Garcia, Joshua is expected to adopt a more aggressive approach to the rematch having been criticised by many boxing experts for being ‘too timid’ in the inaugural encounter.

But Lovejoy believes these efforts will be in vain. Talking to Express Sport, he said: “I know he came back and avenged his loss against Ruiz but I don’t think he avenges his loss this time. I think the same thing is going to happen I don’t think he has it in his tank, I don’t think he has the mentals to just be a dog and make Usyk fight.

“I think he’s trying to box him and if he had the dog in him to make him fight, I think he would have made those adjustments in the first fight after the first five or six rounds. He’s the bigger man, he’s the bigger stronger guy, the true heavyweight and he should have made it a fight and made his guy fight.

“As far as the boxing skills go, Usyk is going to outbox him and he knows what Joshua’s going to try and do, just the way we are talking about it, they’re talking about, they know his only way to win it is by using his size and strength so they’re gonna be prepared for it. Unless he comes out, all out, Mike Tyson total aggressive, if he doesn’t do that, I can’t see him winning the fight.”

Lovejoy – a former Don King fighter – is 20-1 as a professional heavyweight boxer and has spent the majority of his career fighting over in Tijuana, Mexico against local journeymen. So far in the paid ranks, he has knocked out every man he has beaten and is back competing again after sustaining the first and only loss of his career against Mahmoud Charr in May of last year.