‘You didn’t see the same old AJ’: Derrick James happy Joshua’s performance

Derrick James believes people didn’t see what Anthony Joshua did so well against Jermaine Franklin.

Trainer Derrick James says he was plenty happy with Anthony Joshua’s performance on Saturday, which has drawn some criticism from fans, media, and some fellow pros, with Joshua beating Jermaine Franklin over 12 rounds in London.

James, though, says Joshua (25-3, 22 KO) simply performed the game plan as laid out, executing properly and doing some of what they’d worked on in the gym.

He also told The DAZN Boxing Show that he was happy to take any of that criticism.

“Be mad at me. Talk about me,” he told hosts Ak and Barak. “It was all strategy, it was all game plan, he followed it and did exactly what I asked him to do. So be mad at me.”

James also said that when starting to train Joshua, he had to check himself and not try to train him the way he does Errol Spence, Jermell Charlo, or Frank Martin, because Joshua “isn’t where they are” technically.

“I had to self-assess myself and say, ‘I can’t train him like I train Errol, Jermell, Frank,’ because he’s not where they are. With fame and success, yeah, but it’s not about that, it’s from the technical education aspect of it, he’s not where they are. Some of the things they do, I can’t even think about it.

“There’s not a lot of skilled boxers in boxing, period. They mimic Floyd, or they mimic somebody they’ve seen, but when they talk about what AJ’s doing, who are they comparing him to? It’s the whole of boxing. Most of the good fighters who are good now mimic Floyd. Is it really them or is it something they’ve seen? When what you imitate, you didn’t get enough depth from what you saw.”

Here’s the rest of what James had to say:

On how satisfied he was with Joshua’s performance

“I was happy because he did exactly what I wanted him to do. People said they wanted him to do this and that, but that wasn’t in my plan. When you’re getting with somebody new, you have to simplify it to where he’s not thinking about it, that he can just do it naturally.

“So when people say, ‘We saw the same old AJ,’ no, you didn’t see the same old AJ, because of the movements and everything that he did to take away from (Jermaine Franklin). Jermaine Franklin’s a tough fighter and he’s going to fight you until the end, but we never let him get into the fight.”

On Joshua being criticized for not getting a KO

“It was a good fight. Would I have wanted him to knock him out? Yeah, cool, because listen, I like (knockouts), but I don’t ask my guys to do that, because it’s a whole lot of pressure. I would rather not put a lot of pressure on them and have them do what they do. My whole thing was to fight Franklin, get past this, and keep working on his depth. The fight that people want to see him fight, they’re gonna see it eventually, because after this fight, we’ll get another fight, and with more time — in three weeks, we’ll get it back poppin’.”

“I wanted to test him on something simple. He followed the strategy. If anybody wants to talk about Joshua, talk about me, because I did the game plan and the strategy. He just did what I asked him to do. If I told him to mash the gas, pick up the pace a little bit — I think Franklin was so discouraged that he could have easily knocked him out.

“Be mad at me. Talk about me. It was all strategy, it was all game plan, he followed it and did exactly what I asked him to do. So be mad at me.”

On AJ’s best moment in the fight

“I thought the consistency of it all, to me it’s the whole thing. To be able to follow a strategy — and really, you’re kind of holding yourself back as a fighter sometimes. He did what I asked him to do, work on the stick. Because there’s so many other things I could tell him to do that he was working on in the gym, but I had to dial back and simplify it. Let me make it where he doesn’t have to think about it, he just does.

“So people say, ‘The same old’ — listen, man, you’ve never seen him take away every attribute of (an opponent). (Franklin) is a counter-puncher, we know that. So he didn’t counter-punch. If he was able to counter-punch him, (Joshua) blocked the shot, or (Franklin) was in a position where he couldn’t do a counter-shot at all.”

On Joshua’s defense and catching shots improving

“No doubt. I’m watching Franklin and I said, ‘He throws a lot of check hooks, so make sure you keep conscious, when you throw the jab and whatever else you’re doing, be conscious about the defensive aspect of it, to block the shot.’ He did everything I asked him to do. If people have grief or whatever, come talk to me. ... (And Joshua) did a little bit of (countering) in the fight, he started to counter a little bit with the right.”

On working with Joshua

“I had to self-assess myself and say, ‘I can’t train him like I train Errol, Jermell, Frank (Martin),’ because he’s not where they are. With fame and success, yeah, but it’s not about that, it’s from the technical education aspect of it, he’s not where they are. Some of the things they do, I can’t even think about it.

“There’s not a lot of skilled boxers in boxing, period. They mimic Floyd, or they mimic somebody they’ve seen, but when they talk about what AJ’s doing, who are they comparing him to? It’s the whole of boxing. Most of the good fighters who are good now mimic Floyd. Is it really them or is it something they’ve seen? When what you imitate, you didn’t get enough depth from what you saw.”

“With the heavyweights, yeah, Tyson Fury’s a good boxer. I’ve seen him box Wilder, that’s the only fight I’ve really seen him fight was Deontay Wilder. I saw him fight him three times and he’s a good fighter. So I’m not saying nobody’s a good fighter, but everybody’s madly in love with everybody right now.”

On Dillian Whyte as Joshua’s next opponent

“It could be, I don’t know. I’m not in that part of it, but we’ll see. It could be him or it could be somebody else, I don’t know.”

On Joshua possibly fighting Deontay Wilder

“I think Deontay Wilder’s a good fighter, and I think now he’s going through his developmental process also, with Malik Scott developing his skill set and whatever. Just keep pushing on. I think they’re both (Joshua and Wilder) in similar situations. Trying to develop and get more depth. Everybody can punch in the heavyweight division, it’s not even about that, it’s about what can you do outside of that?”

On why Joshua likes training in Texas so much

“It’s really about just working and the atmosphere, man. The ability to just be himself and not be caged in. It’s like being a hostage to your own celebrity (in the UK).”

On AJ learning more between fights than preparing for fights

“When he came, I had 10 weeks to work with him. Two of those weeks were for him to be able to get on my reaction time, my speed, my timing, because I move fast, I move around, I bounce around doing other stuff. The last eight weeks were all about Jermaine Franklin. So now we have time in-between so I can work with him on his skill set and kind of do a mini-camp. By the time training camp starts, he’s already in shape, so we’re just focusing 100 percent on the opponent.”