Roy Jones Jr. believes that Anthony Joshua should ditch trainer Ben Davison in favor of someone with real boxing experience. Jones Jr. feels that Ben does not have the prerequisite knowledge of the sport because he is not a fighter.
Joshua’s failure against IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois last month was down to Ben’s coaching advice, which shipwrecked AJ and sent him to rock bottom. Joshua’s career is bad now. If Joshua chooses to keep Ben Davison, it will be the same: garbage in, garbage out.
If Joshua was a younger fighter, it wouldn’t be a big deal to stay loyal to Davison, hoping he can fix things. Joshua turns 35 on October 15 and he doesn’t have much time to hang out with an inexperienced trainer.
If Joshua doesn’t want to be the one to fire Ben, he can let Eddie Hearn do the dirty work. It doesn’t matter who does it, but Joshua needs an experienced guy who can help him prepare for the rematch with Dubois if that’s the direction he’ll go.
Joshua is good enough to beat Tyson Fury without any trainer. He could have someone he pulled off the street work his corner for a fight against Fury, and he’d probably still win.
For a rematch against Dubois or a trilogy clash against Oleksandr Usyk, Joshua should let Ben Davison walk the plank and send him overboard in favor of a new captain for his ship.
Ben Davison lacks experience
“It takes real boxing knowledge to prepare yourself and get better. If you don’t have someone with real IQ and boxing knowledge who’s been there and done that, they can’t teach you anything,” Roy Jones Jr. said. talkSport Boxing on whether Anthony Joshua can win his rematch against Daniel Dubois.
“You need someone who can hire that sea when the going gets tough. I don’t think Ben Davison has been in enough fights. Ben has done a lot of coaching, but it’s difficult if you haven’t been there yourself.”
Jones isn’t saying who he thinks should take over for Joshua as the new trainer, but it wouldn’t be a shock if he were to throw his hat in the ring in hopes of landing the job. If Joshua can unlearn all the stuff Davison has put in his head, Roy can help him. There are a lot of things Joshua will have to unlearn for a talented trainer like Roy to turn his career around.
“Some guys are lucky, but it’s very difficult for a coach who hasn’t been there himself. I can’t tell you how to swim through the ocean if I’ve never swum through the ocean before. I’m sorry,” says Roy.
Davison briefly trained Tyson Fury, but he dropped him in favor of Sugarhill Steward and had a nice run until fighters figured out how to defeat his style. He also needs to be dumped.
“It’s nothing against Ben Davison because he was good, but when you get in that deep water and you haven’t been in that deep water, that shark-invested water, it’s hard for you to tell somebody what it’s like , because you’ve never been there,” Roy Jr. said.
Jones Jr. is right It’s not personal, but Ben needs to go because he’s useless ballast to Joshua, and he needs to be dropped pronto. It’s unclear why Joshua hired Davison in the first place, but it’s definitely time to get a quality trainer who can help him prepare for this important rematch with Dubois. Ben will be fine. He is a popular trainer in the UK, and he will continue to get fighters interested in being trained by him.
