Anthony Joshua has confirmed that he will not train under the tutelage of Ben Davison for his next fight against Jake Paul in December. Instead, he will prepare with Oleksandr Usyk’s team. Joshua (28-4, 24 KOs) will face Paul (12-1, 7 KOs) in an eight-round professional heavyweight bout on December 19 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. The British boxer hasn’t fought since his knockout loss in the fifth round to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, after undergoing elbow surgery earlier this year. In a press conference prior to the fight on Friday, Joshua confirmed that he has been training in Spain with the team of heavyweight champion Usyk and will continue to do so ahead of his fight against Paul, instead of training with Davison in the UK. Joshua has worked with Davison, former coach of Tyson Fury, since the preparation for his fight against Otto Wallin in 2023.
“He [Usyk] is one of the best in the world. It doesn’t just depend on him, but also on his team surrounding him. I related to them, getting a vision of how someone has achieved so much.”“I will not be trained by Ben Davison. I said London is a bit distracting for me, so I was invited to train with the Usyk team. I’ve been in Spain, we’ve been doing good training,” Joshua said.
Anthony Joshua
Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua faced off for the first time on Friday in Miami.
“It has been phenomenal. It has been a great experience and it’s very challenging.” Although he said he hasn’t sparred with Usyk, Joshua confirmed that the Ukrainian has been in and out of the camp in the last two months. Joshua has faced Usyk twice, suffering consecutive points defeats in 2021 and 2022. The former Olympic gold medalist insisted that he is taking the fight against Paul seriously, who has only had 13 fights, and will seek to make a statement when they meet in the ring. “I’m going to break his face, I’m going to destroy his body, I’m going to stomp on him,” Joshua said. “That’s my mentality, that’s a fighter’s mentality. I know what’s in my heart, what’s in my mind. I’m here to compete.” Paul was very confident that he could cause a big surprise, predicting that he would knock out Joshua in the “4th or 5th round”.
