Anthony Joshua has started to train with Mike Tyson’s former coach Ronnie Shields ahead of his rematch against Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua lost his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight titles last month as Usyk secured a unanimous decision victory.
Following his defeat, Joshua and his current head trainer Rob McCracken have received criticism for their approach to the fight against Usyk.
Joshua, who has already activated his rematch clause, has visited various gyms in the United States in an effort to change his game plan for the second fight against the Ukrainian.
And Shields, who is based in Texas and has trained the likes of Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker and Arturo Gatti, has made it clear he is keen to work with Joshua on a permanent basis.
“It was them who reached out to me,” Shields said in an interview with ThaBoxingVoice. “They reached out to me and they asked me would I be interested in taking a look at AJ and he would like to come down to Texas and see if things could work out between him and I.
“Names don’t mean anything to me, if I can help somebody I’ll help somebody, I just tell them what I think and how I feel. I didn’t get nervous or anything like that because I’ve been here too many times, I’ve done it too many times.
“For a heavyweight, it would be great to get him to reclaim his world titles that he lost to Usyk and I think I’ve got the capabilities to help him to do that,” he stressed.
