Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Anthony Joshua wasn’t mentally ready before his shock defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr at New York’s Madison Square Garden last month.
The Matchroom Boxing boss said the 29-year-old Brit was not “war ready” when he lost his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles to Mexican-American Ruiz Jr by seventh round knockout.
But Hearn said trainer Rob McCracken was already making changes to ensure the result in the rematch isn’t a repeat of their first encounter.
“I think he will bring someone in, but one thing is very clear and Anthony has made it very clear that Rob McCracken is the head trainer,” Hearn told BoxingSocial.
“He’s more than a trainer actually, he’s sort of camp leader, he’s an advisor, he’s all different things.
“Will they bring in someone to work on specific things? Quite possibly, yeah. I don’t really get involved too much in that sort of stuff, despite the conspiracy theories and rumours.
“They know what they are doing, in my opinion Rob McCracken is one of the best trainers in the world, he knows exactly what Anthony Joshua has to do to beat Andy Ruiz, he’s got to make it happen, make him do it.
“But the mindset for this is totally different, I already see it.
“When you’re in a situation, it’s only afterwards that you look back and think [what was I doing?].
“So you look back there, the whole fight week for Joshua-Ruiz, he was on ESPN First Take, ‘oh yeah, I’m gonna have a meeting with Fury, we’ll do this…’
“It’s like, ‘mate [don’t speak beyond this fight]’, but at the time no one was saying, ‘Josh, [don’t speak about that].’
“He trained hard, but just mentally, when he fought [Wladimir] Klitschko, I know it’s sometimes a controversial thing so say, but he was ready to die in the ring.
“Against Ruiz he wanted to win… bad. But I don’t think he was war ready.
“And now, he will be war ready, you will see Joshua-Ruiz [rematch] will be a barn-burner.”
