ANTHONY JOSHUA is working with his new coach Robert Garcia to overcome any mental demons he might suffer in the ring.
Joshua has added former super-featherweight world champion Garcia to his camp before rematching Oleksandr Usyk in the summer.
AJ, beaten by 35-year-old Usyk over 12 rounds in September, comes into the fight trying to replicate his revenge mission over Andy Ruiz Jr.
Joshua, 32, was knocked out by the Mexican-American in June 2019 but won the rematch in Saudi Arabia six months later.
But Garcia fears the British superstar has not fully recovered mentally from his first defeat and they are working to change that.
The trainer said on his YouTube channel: “A lot of fighters, they come off a loss – like probably after the Andy Ruiz Jr fight – they come off a loss thinking that was never gonna happen.
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“So it affected him, it affected him mentally. He probably thought, ‘Maybe that’s the end of my career, maybe that’s it,’ so he had a lot of things going on in his mind.
“I think that’s one of the most important things that affected Anthony and that’s what I’m here to change – me and Angel and other help that he’s got.
“He’s created a team of not only me and Angel teaming up, preparing the game plan and training him with the right strategy or the right sparring partners to go out and perform.
“He hired other people that are also very smart. Not boxing trainers, just different people that could help with the way he’s thinking.
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“Somebody that’s with him, thinking positive with him. Everybody around him is positive.
“Everybody around him is pushing him to his limits, to what he was doing before he lost his first fight.
“He needs to know and believe that he’s still as good, or he’s gonna be even better than he was before he became champion for the first time, when he went out there and was knocking everybody out.”
Joshua left long-time trainer Rob McCracken in Team GB’s Sheffield HQ and set up camp with No2 Angel Fernandez in Loughborough.
But esteemed cornerman Garcia has now flown in from California to give an extra set of experienced eyes.
Joshua and Usyk are in talks to rematch in August in Saudi Arabia with an announcement imminent.
Andy Ruiz Jr beat Anthony Joshua in June 2019
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