Ben Davison interview: Anthony Joshua is a genuine superstar – and a real man-mountain

The man guiding Anthony Joshua back to the summit of the heavyweight division has a history of doing just that. Ben Davison brought Tyson Fury back from the brink in 2016 in what can only be described as a wild journey that saw the ‘Gypsy King’ lose 10 stone and become a world heavyweight champion once more.

On Friday night Joshua fights the former UFC champion Francis Ngannou in a contest that will be far from straightforward, as Fury found out last November when he was pushed to the wire in a controversial split decision win.

Davison’s track record of rebuilding heavyweights makes him a natural choice to run Joshua’s corner and camp, even if his most high-profile former charge is his new fighter’s rival.

At just 31, three years younger than Joshua, Davison is renowned for honing fighters’ minds as much as their physical and fighting prowess. And what struck Davison, when he first started working with Joshua at short notice before his spectacular win over Otto Wallin last December, was his “coachability” and “versatility”, as well as his considerable size.

“I remember thinking ‘cor he’s a mountain’ but just polite, professional, and then when we did do a bit of work what came to my mind was ‘very coachable’,” Davison tells Telegraph Sport. “Professionalism, coachability, that’s a really important thing for me.”

But what does coachability really mean at this level? Joshua is already an Olympic gold medallist, and a two-time heavyweight champion of the world. “Well, if I say ‘you’re doing this, this is an issue, you need to stop doing this...’ some fighters are going to go yeah but... Straightaway for me that’s a red flag.

“That’s the difference. So if there was something that we wanted to eradicate from his game, we would say we want to take that away from the game. And if there’s still resistance then, you’re uncoachable. 

“But not with AJ, he’s very coachable, very professional. He’s not even on time, he is early every day, warms up properly, is ready to start on time with every detail taken care of. He has a real passion for the game as well, which I love.”

Joshua went into a self-imposed exile in the dark for 96 hours recently, paying for the privilege at a holistic centre. Davison’s theory on why this seemed an attractive way to spend four days is revealing.

“I have my own sort of reasons why he might do that and I think that I think it’s so hard for people to even comprehend what life must be like to be somebody like Anthony Joshua,” Davison explains. 

“Everywhere you go, every person you meet, to them they’re meeting Anthony Joshua, however every person he meets is another person, and I feel like he feels like he has to fulfil that ‘I’m meeting Anthony Joshua’ every single time. That’s a lot of responsibility.

“He’s genuinely a superstar, that’s a lot to deal with and, here in camp, he behaves like one of the boys. He loves it. The McCormack twins give him a bit of stick, and he gives a bit of stick back, and he absolutely loves it, cause he probably doesn’t get that as much elsewhere. It’s certainly been two good camps.”

At times, Joshua has been critiqued as a robotic fighter with technical and mental frailties. Davison grins and shakes his head, disagreeing with that viewpoint vehemently.

“Look, he’s gone into two rematches straight off the bat [Andy Ruiz and Oleksandr Usyk] and I think that says a lot about someone’s character and mental state,” he explains. “That’s a hell of a lot to contend with, he’s had a tremendous amount of pressure throughout his whole career, and that shows his mental strength. 

“We’ve pulled up clips of his defence and his instinctual defence is good. Look, he’s an Olympic gold medallist, he’s a two-time heavyweight champion of the world, he’s a phenomenal fighter, with phenomenal attributes.”

‘He’s the most critiqued fighter’

Davison adds that the analysis of his charge is overblown. “I think he’s the most critiqued fighter, I think if he wears an airpod at a press conference that gets commented about, I think if he wears a hat that gets commented about, I think if he’s got a little bit of a frown on his face, that gets commented about, whereas someone else can be themselves and it’s not a thing.

“It makes him the most critiqued fighter, and the most talked about. Everything is analysed, which must be a lot of pressure, but he deals with those things tremendously. It’s water off a duck’s back, to be honest.”

With his gym analysis colleague Lee Wylie, Davison believes they have come up with the perfect game plan for Ngannou, who showed patience and more than a little power and skill against Fury just over four months ago.

Davison also believes he has the “strategy ready” to defeat Usyk, if Joshua were to fight the Ukrainian for a third time after two chastening defeats.

But right now it is Ngannou – a man with an amazing back story – standing in the opposing corner. “I’m confident in a knockout for my guy against Ngannou, we believe we have the plan and the skills,” says Davison.

And then Fury next? “Ask me again after Fury and Usyk have fought on May 18... then I’ll let you know.”