Win or Lose, Joshua is Damned-Trainer

Texas-based Derrick James, the new trainer for Anthony Joshua, said the former heavyweight champion is in an unfortunate position in his come-back bid to world boxing heavyweights A-group. 

James made the observation with boxingnews24.com while evaluating Joshua's chances in his come-back bid. 

Joshua will be squaring up with Jermaine Franklin on Saturday night. But according to James, the former World heavyweight champion is going to be at the receiving end if he wins or loses the fight because people's expectation about him is huge. 

"People won't be satisfied if he goes 12 rounds and wins convincingly in a wide point decision.

They won't be satisfied either if he knocks Franklin out in 2 rounds. He will be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. 

James noted however, that the 33 year-old pugilist requires a very powerful victory optics in his quest to regain prominence in the upper room of world heavyweight boxing. 

“...In the mainstream, I think people are still fascinated by him as a character, and his commercial opportunities are still enormous. The requests for him are huge.

“All he needs are the optics of a very powerful victory.

James noted that even as the fight with Franklin is not going to restored his old destroyer status, Joshua still needs to reinvent himself in that manner, get a win in order to have a staking claim in the other big fights lined up for him. 

“This is his (Joshua) first non-title fight in 12 fights. He’s done 12 in a row. So in a sense, he just needs to win, and he has three big fights left. Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, and Joe Joyce. He doesn’t need to do anymore after that.

“If he knocks him out early, people will say, ‘Yeah, but he’s #35 in the world.’ If he goes 12 rounds, people will say, ‘Yeah, but he’s lost the old destroyer.’ He needs that in a way, but there’s a feeling around him, and he’s purported to be like this at the moment.

The major concern for pundits at the moment is that Joshua, currently weighing as much as he did fighting Carlos Takam in 2017, stands at 254 lbs. The weight made him slower then, lacking the combination ability he is known for. 

Joshua has admitted doing more weight lifting even as he continues to go through rigorous training routine with James.