It was with Manny Robles in the corner that American-Mexican heavyweight Andy Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) upset British unified division champion Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) in 2019.
Since then, both Ruiz and Joshua have changed mentors. Anthony has been running from one coach to another lately. Robles
believesthat this is a so-so idea: “I don’t know what Joshua was thinking. But I think he should have stayed with Robert Garcia. If I were him, I would give Robert a little more time. I think he would make adjustments to Joshua’s boxing, and we would all appreciate them in the next fight. And so Anthony will have to start all over again with a clean slate.
Robles believes that “Derrick James is an excellent coach who has proved his top level more than once. As for me, he should have won in the nomination “coach of 2022”. He didn’t win, but I think he deserved it. It’s not about him. The fact is that jumping from one coach to another, you have to start everything from scratch every time. It’s just that Joshua has already reached the top level for a long time … So I doubt that he needs it.
Robles recalls that “Garcia accepted Joshua when he was preparing for the most difficult task of his career – a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk. Imagine such a career start with a new fighter – immediately against the top, moreover, the “pound” level. Of course, Robert would have preferred to get used to Anthony first, to have an intermediate fight. But he didn’t have that chance. He had no choice – he had to immediately withdraw his fighter against the techie Usyk. He didn’t even have time to implement any changes. They are a priori in different conditions – Garcia and James. But even so, Anthony spent the second fight with Usyk much better than the first. There were blows to the body, which had not been noticed before. He was generally better. But, alas, it still wasn’t enough to win.”
The other day, Joshua announced the goal for 2023: either Fury, or Wilder, or both! But then he had another cool option – his promoter Eddie Hearn negotiated with ex-UFC champion Francis Ngannou.
