Anthony Joshua has reportedly reached out to Ronnie Shields as he considers a training change ahead of the rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
AJ surrendered his world titles after losing by unanimous decision to WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk, who was subsequently crowned unified heavyweight champion of the world.
The Briton slimmed down ahead of the bout and appeared to fancy his chances of outboxing Usyk. That strategy proved to be rather poorly thought through, with Joshua losing, comprehensively.
There has been some suggestion that Joshua would stick with coach Rob McCracken for the rematch, but he now appears to be considering a change, something that is quite clearly required.
Quoted by the Daily Star, Ronnie Shields has confirmed that contact has been made over the possibility of him training Joshua for his second bout with the Ukranian Usyk.
MORE: WBA set to scupper golden opportunity for British undisputed heavyweight champion
“They reached out to me and they asked if I would be interested in taking a look at AJ and that he wanted to come down to Texas and see if things would work out between him and I.”
“I said, ‘No problem, I would love to see if we had a connection together’.”
Shields has previously worked with Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. He certainly has the necessary C.V to train AJ for a world title fight – one which will prove pivotal in his career.
Whether the switch will be confirmed over the coming weeks remains to be seen. AJ fans are likely to be desperate to see this one go through…
More must-reads: