Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/859132
21 Sport BOXING maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 AUGUST 2017 Anthony Joshua's trainer critical of his performance against Wladimir Klitschko Anthony Joshua's trainer criticised his performance in the victory over Wladimir Klitschko on the fighter's first morning back in the gym DESPITE winning what was widely considered the finest world heavyweight title fight since the 1990s so conclusively that Klitschko has since retired, Rob McCracken sought to main- tain Joshua's focus. The 27-year-old WBA and IBF champion became Britain's lat- est darling with the 11th-round stoppage victory in front of a 90,000-strong crowd at Wemb- ley, and has since largely experi- enced only praise. He returned to the gym only four weeks after the April 29 date in an attempt to "tick over" until confirmation of his next fight, expected imminently against Bulgaria's Kubrat Pulev for either October 28 or Novem- ber 11. When he did so however, Mc- Cracken, also Team GB's per- formance director, immediately told him he needed to improve. "It was like I was a novice," Joshua told Press Association Sport. "We ticked the entertainment factor, but from a coaching point of view there was a lot of mis- takes made, and a lot of things we could do better, and that's what he looks at. "He was straight up: 'Yeah, great, whatever, but that was four weeks ago; we've got to start pre- paring for the next three years. Not only are there tougher fights in front of you, there's other peo- ple gunning for you to beat you, so you've got to get serious'. "'You've got to get back on it now. Your left hook was bad'. I was still living off the adula- tion, thinking: 'What? This guy's taking the Mick'. But I'm over it now. "Let's say you've painted some- thing and you think: 'Yeah, that was great', and then someone sees it and they're like: 'Yeah, it's all right'. Everything you thought it was, someone told you it wasn't. The fight's done. No hype, let's get back to busi- ness. "That's why I went with him when I turned pro, because I knew I needed a lot of experi- ence, and he knew me for who I am in the gym. After the Olym- pics certain people would have thought: 'This kid's unbeliev- able' but Rob was like: 'No, you're a novice, you've done well, but...' - he's always been grounded." April's victory was the second of significance McCracken has experienced at Wembley af- ter he also trained the retired Carl Froch to his 2014 defeat of George Groves. Joshua had hoped to fight the 41-year-old Klitschko again in Las Vegas, but since the Ukrain- ian's retirement Pulev, 36, has become his focus. "The confirmation of the fight will come from us," he said. "The best thing I've done is main- tained; you can have a rest and feel worse than you did while training. "I actually feel decent because I've been ticking over. I need to improve, get better, and the only way to do that is keep training, sparring." Paulie Malignaggi blasts Conor McGregor a d**khead after photo leak PAULIE Malignaggi has labelled Conor McGregor a d**khead after photos of their sparring sessions were leaked. Former two-weight world champion Malignaggi, 36, had been brought in by the McGregor camp ahead of the UFC star's eagerly-awaited boxing match with Floyd May- weather in Las Vegas at the end of the month. Photos then emerged on so- cial media that appeared to show McGregor, dominating the sessions, including one of Malignaggi getting up off the canvas which prompted him to walk out of the training camp early. He claims it was the result of a push and also insists the leaked photos do not give the true im- pression of how the sessions were going. "The funny thing about the push down was this - it was during one of his worst mo- ments," Malignaggi told the MMA Hour. "He pushed me down on the floor to try and catch a break and the instant I went down I got back up. "I started to take it to him right after that. I told him, 'you don't get no breaks here', and I started to hit him with more body shots. I said, 'take those, they don't feel good' and I could hear him whimper off the body shots, too. "In the dressing room [af- terwards] I passed by Conor and he said 'good work' and I said 'yeah, good work Conor.' I thought we had buried the hatchet. "Then I said, 'Conor, do me a favor, bro. No more of these crazy pictures. I have to try and make you look good. I want you to look good. I want to say things that make you look good. I want to promote you and help you out, but not at my expense. "I also have to try and figure how to do it without making myself look bad now because you're putting out me in com- promising positions with these pictures. "I had this conversation with Conor and this is probably when I realized what a d**khead this guy is. "He looks at me, and I'm ex- pecting, 'you're right, Paulie – you got it, let's just keep this good work going. Instead, he looks at me and he gives me this smirk, laughs at me and he starts walking away from me. "He gives me his back, he's walking away towards the showers and he's like, 'Ha ha, I don't know Paulie. We got some good ones in those last two rounds. I don't know about that. I thought there was no way this guy is that much of an a**hole." Malignaggi admits that McGregor - who will be having his first ever pro boxing match when he faces Mayweather on August 26 - had impressed him at times, but he believes he would have dominated further sessions. "Here's the thing, people ask me did he get better from the first to the second time - he did," Malignaggi said. "The thing is, this is still something new to him, so the increments at which he is growing at are still smaller. "I've done this for 20 years of my life, so from one sparring session to another to another, the rate at which I progress is a lot faster because the muscle memory comes back. The reac- tion and timing starts to come back at a faster and faster rate. "Even if he got better from the first sparring, I got way better from the first sparring. And on the third and fourth one, I would've got better and better. By the end of camp, this guy would've understood after two sparring (sessions), that his ass was going to get beat for the rest of camp."