Anthony Joshua’s inability to adjust and lack of variation in attack were two of the shortcomings that contributed to his loss to Andy Ruiz Jr, according to Tyson Fury’s trainer Ben Davison.
In an interview with talkSPORT, Davison offered his insights to the fight that cost Joshua his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight championships.
“It’s easy to say what I would’ve changed there and then,” Davison said. “It all comes back to what you’re used to doing – what your body’s been prepared to do, game plans, etc.
“I always say, at this level it all boils down to game plans because if you go in there with the wrong game plan you can make an easy fight a hard fight.
“I feel like for Joshua he hasn’t got enough variability. I don’t feel like he can adjust, I feel like for the last couple of fights he’s been caught between trying to box and fight.
“Sort of caught in between the two, rather than doing one of the two or having the fluidity to float between the two.”
The young coach also noted a difference in Joshua’s jab that he said he hadn’t previously seen.
“He had a low left hand, jabbing from the hip. I’ve never seen him train and jab from the hip. I could be wrong, but I’ve never seen that,” Davison said.
“I’ve always seen that he’s been trained to punch from a certain hand placement, I’ve never seen him trained to shoot from a low, loose guard.
“If you’re going to try something, don’t try something on the night of a world title fight. It needs to be practiced in the gym. Your style has to adjust depending on who you’re boxing.
“You need to be able to adjust your style at the top level and he’s been trained to do things in a certain way.”
Davison questioned whether an immediate rematch was the right approach after Joshua was knocked down four times in seven rounds by Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden.
“I don’t wanna go into too much detail obviously because he’s a potential opponent, but changes have to be made. And they’ve decided to jump straight back into the rematch,” he said.
“If they know what went wrong – and I mean specifically, not just to say ‘Oh, I should’ve pushed him back more or I should’ve boxed a bit more.’ You need to be specific, I can tell you specifically what went wrong there.
“If you can specifically break it down, and they know where they went wrong, then it might be an idea to have the rematch straight away.
“But if they don’t actually know specifically what the problem was and what needs changing, then I wouldn’t go into that rematch.”
