Anthony Joshua has done MORE sparring to combat ring rust, laid off weights to focus on boxing
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Anthony Joshua has done MORE sparring to combat ring rust, laid off weights to focus on boxing
Anthony Joshua has done MORE sparring to combat ring rust, laid off weights to focus on boxing, brought in Kubrat Pulev clones â and David Ghansa says training has felt like âbeing in Ivan Dragoâs labâ with TWO Covid tests a week
Anthony Joshuaâs training camp for Kubrat Pulev was far from being normalÂ
Joshuaâs camp has focused on similar aspects to his last one for Andy Ruiz Jr
Camp manager David Ghansa said some sparring partners were unable to fly inÂ
AJâs sparring partners were handpicked to have similar attributes to Pulev
The Brit defends his world heavyweight titles against Pulev on Saturday night
Covid tests, logistical nightmares and bio-secure bubbles. This was far from anything that resembled a normal training camp for Anthony Joshua, but in his line of work you have to roll with the punches.
Ordinarily the operation runs smoothly and goes off without a hitch, but we are not in ordinary times. Coronavirus created hurdles that needed negotiating and made it impossible for Joshuaâs team to run his camp business as usual.
There were times when plans had to be ripped up and thrown out of the window â at one stage Joshuaâs entire schedule, for eating, sleeping and training, was plunged into disarray and had to be completely altered just because one local gym he was using in Sheffield was forced to change its working hours due to the governmentâs tier system.
 Anthony Joshua has focused heavily on his boxing in his training camp to fight Kubrat Pulev
 AJ defends his world heavyweight titles against the Bulgarian (R) this Saturday night in London
Even Joshuaâs training manager David Ghansa admitted it felt more like being surrounded by scientists in âIvan Dragoâs labâ than a normal camp.
âWe have been getting tested regularly, most of the time itâs twice a week,â he told Sportsmail.
âEvery time we fly somebody in from a new country we are testing them.
âEveryone is walking around with their masks on, distancing and working out in separate areas. It took a lot of getting used to but we adapted to it.â
Despite testing circumstances, Joshua and his team battled through the adversity in true Rocky spirit, making the best of a bad situation to get him primed and ready to deal with Kubrat Pulev.
Joshua has done less strength and conditioning training despite what he puts out on Instagram
 Joshuaâs training manager David Ghansa (second to AJâs right) revealed how different this camp was to normal ones because of coronavirus restrictions
 Ghansa admitted it felt more like being in âIvan Dragoâs labâ (pictured) than a normal camp
Fortunately, any major change to Joshuaâs training operation had already been tweaked before the Andy Ruiz Jr rematch, so that was one less adjustment they had to worry about.
Before that fight, Joshua had realigned his focus to his ringcraft and technique while his sparring was tailored to Ruiz Jr.
The fruits of his work in the gym bore evident results as a leaner and slicker Joshua jabbed and moved his way to redemption in the Saudi Arabian desert.
Pulev presents an entirely different puzzle to crack but Joshua and his team are confident the same algorithm which won AJ his world heavyweight titles back will serve him well again.
âWe have done the same as the Ruiz camp in that we have brought in sparring partners with similar styles to Pulevâs,â Ghansa added.
âWeâve watched him and dissected his game and looked at everything he does well. We know he has a good jab so instead of finding a carbon copy of Pulev we looked at who are the best jabbers around and who has got a similar jab to his.
âWe donât care if you throw anything else so if you do come, obviously sparring is sparring, but we work with the partners so we got them to keep jabbing because it works for us.
Joshua (left) pictured with sparring partners Bryant Jennings (middle) and David Adeleye (right) and his camp manager Ghansa (front)
The Watford-born star is focusing on himself while his team adapt his regime around him
âWe got people in with all the right attributes but itâs quite funny because most of the time itâs the training teamâs decision and AJ isnât aware of it because he is more focused on what heâs doing and not what Pulevâs going to do.
âSo itâs our way of subconsciously getting him used to fighting that style or dealing with a certain problem without him being too aware of it.â
Joshuaâs main sparring partners for his camp have been Martin Bakole, Bryant Jennings, Hosea Stewart, Gerald Washington, Delicious Orie, David Adeleye, Christian Thun, Frazer Clarke, Peter Kadiru and Fabio Wardley.
Ghansa revealed there were other heavyweights he wanted to recruit for sparring but was prevented because of travelling restrictions due to coronavirus.
âAt the start of camp we did worry that it seemed like we were going to struggle to get sparring partners over. There were a couple of fighters we wanted to fly in for this camp but couldnât because of Covid,â he said.
âNamewise they are nothing to scream and shout about, it was more like trying to get people in last minute. There was a guy from Croatia but living in Russia. We wanted him to come in but he needed to get a Covid test, and the result had to be 48 hours before his flight but no test centres where he was could turn it around that quickly so it literally became impossible to use him.â
So what other problems has the pandemic caused? âWhen we started camp, Sheffield was put into tier two so a local gym we were using could only open between certain times,â Ghansa said.
 Angel Fernandez (pictured on the pads with AJ) has played a role in his second camp with him
 Joshua has done more sparring in this camp than usual, having been out of the ring for a year
âWe had to completely flip AJâs schedule because of it, so he was having to sleep earlier, train earlier, eat earlier. It became about just trying to cram everything in to a day.â
He added: âIt has just been very different. We have partnered with a testing company and we work with a hotel anyway so have put the sparring partners up in there.
âThe hotel was only open for work purposes so there were NHS staff around in the same area as well. All the fighters were kept in the exact same room for the whole duration and tested regularly. It was pretty difficult for some of them.
âGerald Washington lives in Los Angeles so you can only imagine what great weather he gets and heâs by a beach and can go for runs by the sea and all of a sudden we put him in a small hotel room in sunny Sheffield as they say and itâs foggy everyday, thereâs no foodstores open and heâs having to eat off Deliveroo. It wasnât the easiest.â
Coaches Angel Fernandez and Joby Clayton, who were brought on board for the Ruiz rematch, are now permanent fixtures in Joshuaâs team and played a key role in this camp alongside head trainer Rob McCracken.
The heavyweight champion was delighted by the adjustments he made for his last fight and subsequently wanted this camp to be similar, instead of reverting back to his old ways of preparation.
Joshuaâs team are aware of Pulevâs solid jab and picked sparring partners with similar ones
 Ghansa (middle) revealed everyone in AJâs bubble is being tested for Covid twice a week
âThe camp has gone really well considering everything,â Ghansa said. âTraining wise we have just been teeing off from the last fight.
âWeâve done a few things differently. His strength training for this camp, he hasnât actually done too many weights. I know what we put out on Instagram might look a bit different, of him doing deadlifts or bench pressing, but the amount of time spent on it is not that much.
âIf you looked at his timetable, youâd be like: âBloody hell it is just boxingâ. All type of sessions are boxing now instead of fitness and strength.â
Come fight night, it will have been just over a year since Joshua last stepped through the ropes but Ghansa is convinced the long lay-off will not be a factor.
âHis year out shouldnât show. Heâs done a lot of sparring, a lot of sparring and that is the closest thing you can get to the real thing. You could say weâve done extra just to be sure.â
There may have been a few more bumps in the road to get AJ battle ready, but they expect normal service to resume for him on Saturday night. Then next stop, Tyson Fury.
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