Cuban guru Ismael Salas is confident that American coach Robert Garcia will help British heavyweight Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) get even with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) in a rematch to be held on August 20 in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) .
WATCH FIGHT Usyk vs Joshua 2 ON DAZN
“I speak with confidence, because I know Robert very well, –
Salas says. We’ve known each other since he was a teenager. He was a good boxer who became an even better coach. He has repeatedly helped boxers to reach a qualitatively new level. Compare Marcos Maidana before Garcia and after. Before Robert, it was an ordinary boxer, nothing of the kind. But he changed it. And if Joshua can fully trust Robert, then he will help him.”
Salas knows what the main difficulty of the task will be: “It often happens that it is very difficult to work with eminent boxers. Sometimes they just refuse to do what you ask them to do. Robert needs fighters who are willing to listen. He loves big-headed fighters. So if Joshua proves to be a true professional working with him, then Garcia will definitely take him to a new level.
Salas sees no problem with Garcia not having a top heavyweight before: “A good coach is a good coach. Dot. Trust me, it’s all up to Joshua now. If he is ready to trust Robert 100%, then he will have a good chance of beating Usyk. Otherwise, he will lose again. It seems to me that his chance is to be much more determined than he was in the first fight. Mustache is very good. But this is a small fighter. You know what happens when a good big fighter meets a good small fighter. If a small one wins in such a battle, then he was simply more decisive.
The first fight between Usyk and Joshua took place in September in London (England) – the Ukrainian won by unanimous decision. Yesterday the champion swam 10 km and went to the Russian bath: he stumbled upon Chisora there. Joshua’s mentor talked a lot about Usyk’s “out of shape” and his ward’s tactics for revenge.
In order not to miss the most interesting news from the world of boxing and MMA, subscribe to us at
Facebook and
Google News.