Via Barry Holbrook: According to Gareth A. Davies, Anthony Joshua will face Australian heavyweight Demsey McKean in April in a confidence bout and will be coached by Derrick James as his new coach.
32-year-old McKean (22-0, 14 KOs) is a capable heavyweight boxer, rated #10 WBO & #11 IBF, but lacks the strength to hurt Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), This suits him very well.
After losing his last two fights to Oleksandr Usyk and three of his last five, Joshua needed a class opponent to rekindle his memory of what it feels like to destroy someone that he has repeated over and over again. until losing to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019.
Will Joshua bring Angel Fernandez?
Derrick James would be a good coach for Joshua, as long as he doesn’t spoil things by putting Angel Fernandez from the UK and makes it a confusing situation as to who the real coach is.
If Joshua brings Fernandez in, it will be interesting to see how well Derrik will do when he has to share the coaching duties as AJ’s last coach, Robert Garcia, did.
In hindsight, Robert should have been assertive with Joshua, letting him know that if he was going to use Fernandez as a second coach it wouldn’t be a good situation.
It would be a good idea for Derrick to put his foot down and let Joshua know in the nicest way that if he ever intends to let Fernandez coach him, he needs to move on.
AJ fights Demsey McKean in April
“Demsey McKean, a top 15 competitor. Yeah I do. I actually do, and for me, it’s a four- or five-round knockout for Anthony Joshua. It regained his confidence. No problem with that, he needs it,” Gareth A. Davies told iFL TV when asked if Anthony Joshua will face his next competitor Demsey McKean on April 1.
“Dillian Whyte in July and then another month. Is that rage? Is that Wilder? Is that Joe Joyce? Is it a big name? Is it a big clash in another stadium, maybe Principality Stadium in Cardiff or the Middle East?
“Yeah, I think that’s fine, but we haven’t seen him fight three times in a year maybe six or seven years, so it’s unlikely he’ll fight. [that many times],” Gareth said of Joshua.
“But I totally get a tuning war. He needs to regain his confidence. We met him after the August game against Oleksandr Usyk. He needs his confidence. He was flat, moody, even bedridden. So yeah, I believe in the plan [of Eddie Hearn for Joshua to resurrect his career in 2023].
Joshua is coached by Derrick James
“I think it will be early April [against Demsey McKean] and then July for Dillian Whyte. Apparently, he’s the one in Dallas, Texas, taking care of Errol Spence and the Charlo twins. Both are great boxers. They show off their education and skill in the ring, and they’re all great boxers. They are very dangerous punchers and great fighters. It was an old school coach,” Gareth said of hiring Joshua Derrick James as his new coach to take over.
“You don’t want to go through too many coaches, but Robert Garcia is clearly not the right fit for him. I don’t know if he will stay with Angel Fernandez or not. That would be very interesting to find out. There is some speculation that he could get back with Robert McCracken, but his return route is entirely up to AJ.
“Derrick James is a highly respected old school coach. So he will learn old school tricks. Does he have too much of an old dog now to learn new tricks? We don’t know, but we want AJ back in the flames and destroyer he’s capable of being. That’s what we really needed,” said Gareth.
