Rob McCracken excited by the thought of facing ‘exceptional’ WBC champion and his fighter has discussed strategy with Floyd Mayweather
Anthony Joshua’s trainer, Rob McCracken, promised on Saturday night that his fighter was “ready for the greatest technical challenge of his career” if, as hoped, he meets Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight crown next year.
While the champion, fresh from his ruthless knockout of Kubrat Pulev, talked at length with Floyd Mayweather Jnr, stayed up for his compulsory drug-testing at 4am and then banqueted with his 23-strong backroom staff at the hotel opposite the venue, McCracken was already plotting how Joshua could take down his British rival.
“The fight with Fury is what he wants to do,” McCracken said. “Ultimately, he’s the fighter, Eddie Hearn is his promoter, and whoever he fights is fine with me. Can he fight anyone? Of course he can, he’s a fantastic heavyweight champion.
“AJ is not yet the complete fighter. He’s still got a bit of a way to go. We fast-tracked him [to world-title level] because we believed he could do it and we took a risk with [opponent] Wladimir Klitschko [in 2017], who was hugely experienced and he has learnt on the job from there.
“Any fight that is put forward, as long as it works for both fighters and whether it’s Tyson Fury or anyone else, then of course we’ll take it. That’s why he is in heavyweight boxing – to fight the best and Tyson Fury is up there.
“Him and Tyson Fury are the two best heavyweights. It’s when they fight, not if. I wouldn’t have thought they’d wait. I would think they would definitely fight and probably fight at least twice. That’s what everybody wants to happen.”
McCracken is respectful of the ring skills of Fury, the World Boxing Council champion.
“Both fighters are top heavyweights. The two best in the world. I know Tyson. He’s a fantastic fighter,” he said. “Let’s see what happens with the promoters. Tyson has his team, Eddie is AJ’s promoter, but of course they’ll fight. I’ll just say that it will be a fascinating fight and brilliant for boxing and brilliant for both men. He’s an exceptional talent Fury, but so is big Josh.”
The trainer was especially pleased with the way Joshua went about his demolition of Pulev.
“It was a good performance, he stayed patient and got the job done, so I thought he did well. Pulev is very experienced and he’s dangerous. AJ tried to finish Pulev off [in the third round], realised he wasn’t ready to go and then just regrouped, got his breath back and his range and distance in the next round. Then he broke Pulev down, but Pulev was dangerous early on.”
There was criticism from some boxing pundits that Joshua should have gone in for the kill when Pulev was reeling after the early onslaught, but McCracken said the Bulgarian was no pushover.
“Pulev had only ever lost to [Wladimir] Klitschko in his entire career,” he said. “You know what it’s like with AJ. Like when he beat Alexander Povetkin.
“I was delighted, it was a great win. Yet people were going, ‘Oh, he got hit with a few shots’. What planet are they on? These are top fighters he fights and Pulev was another top fighter.”
McCracken ranked the victory over Pulev as “one of AJ’s best”, adding: “To put on a performance like that when you haven’t boxed for 12 months isn’t easy, but he’s getting better all the time.”
Joshua is still ready to take advice from others, as evidenced by the time he spent with Mayweather in his dressing room after the fight.
“They talked tactics for about an hour,” Hearn revealed. “It was unbelievable. They were talking about slipping jabs, using elbows in a clinch, it just went on and on. Mayweather loved it – he was screaming the whole time, ‘Jab, jab, stay on the outside, beautiful, beautiful’. It was quite strange really.
“AJ was just bleeding information out of him about slipping jabs. He is a student of the game. AJ is like a sponge. Any information he can draw out of people he loves it. He saw that conversation as so valuable.”
Indeed, Joshua will need to be at his very best as he prepares for his greatest challenge against Fury – hopefully next year.