Eddie Hearn Says Anthony Joshua will stick with his coach, 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” working with Davison and had done well in camp leading up to his fifth-round knockout loss to Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) on September 21st.
Fans view Ben Davison as more of a motivational trainer than one 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. Let’s roll the dice.’
With Joshua’s career and legacy on the line for his rematch with Dubois, it could be a foolish mistake on his part to stay with Ben as his coach.
If Joshua loses the rematch, he’ll have someone to blame; that will be an easy target in Ben. That would be a different story if Joshua went with a new coach because he would be forced to shoulder the blame from 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’s an obvious target if Joshua is blown out of the water again by Dubois. Ben would be the convenient scapegoat if Joshua loses the rematch. I could understand staying with Davison if I were in AJ’s shoes because having him as the captain of the ship is perfect to deflect blame if things go wrong.
Joshua’s fans who favor him keeping Davison and his current training crew feel that Ben has done a bang-up job rebuilding AJ after his back-to-back defeats against Oleksandr Usyk. They feel that just because Joshua suffered a setback against the big puncher Dubois, it shouldn’t mean that Ben needs to be given the axe in favor of another trainer.
On the flip side, Joshua’s so-called rebuild job done by Ben Davison was against 100% tomato cans that any heavyweight in the top tier would have beaten.
A proper rebuild, if there were one, would have involved Joshua beating A-level fighters rather than this gang of four:
– Francis Ngannou
– Otto Wallin
– Robert Helenius
– Jermaine Franklin
“He’s happy with his training camp. He was in great condition; he was sparring really well. In my opinion, there won’t be any changes,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about Joshua’s decision to keep Ben Davison as his trainer.
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