Eddie Hearn says Anthony Joshua will stick with his trainer, Ben Davison, for his next fight, which could be a rematch with IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois in early 2025.
(Credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing)
Promoter Hearn says Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) is “Happy” to work with Davison and had done well in the ring leading up to his fifth round loss to Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) on the 21 of September.
Fans see Ben Davison as more of a motivational coach than someone who can teach the technical side of the sport. They see him as a guy who can tell Joshua, “Atta boy, Joshua, throw the uppercut.” With Joshua’s career and legacy on the line for his rematch with Dubois, it could be a stupid mistake on his part to stick with Ben as his coach.
If Joshua loses the rematch, he will have someone to blame; who will be an easy target in Ben. It would be a different story if Joshua went with a new trainer because he would be forced to blame the fans because the new guy couldn’t do anything with what was a flawed fighter to begin with. Sticking with Ben is ideal because he is an obvious target if Joshua is blown out of the water again by Dubois.
Joshua fans who favor him keeping Davison and his current training team feel that Ben has done a bang-up job of rebuilding AJ after his back-to-back defeat against Oleksandr Usyk. They feel that just because Joshua suffered a setback against the big puncher Dubois, it should not mean that Ben should be given the ax in favor of another trainer.
On the contrary, the so-called reconstruction work of Joshua done by Ben Davison was against 100% tomato cans that any heavy weight in the first level would have beaten.
A correct reconstruction, if there was one, would have involved Joshua beating A-level fighters rather than this gang of four:
Francis Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
– Robert Helenius
– Jermaine Franklin
“He is happy with his training camp. He was in great condition; he was sparring really well. In my opinion, there will be no changes,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about Joshua’s decision to keep Ben Davison as his trainer.
Last updated on 05/10/2024
