The man behind Anthony Joshua: Rob McCracken on preparing 'AJ' for the next chapter of his story
Given the late change in opposition, McCracken insists he will not be letting his young charge take his eye off the ball with potential 2018 unifications in store should he win
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Rob McCracken, the man tasked with guiding Anthony Joshua through superstardom, knows a thing or two about the perils of a mandatory challenger.
McCracken has been preparing the IBF and WBA champion for his latest world title defence, which takes place at Cardiff's Principality Stadium on Saturday against Carlos Takam.
Joshua had been set to face Kubrat Pulev, who was the No.1 contender with the IBF, but a pectoral injury to the Bulgarian meant that Takam was presented with the chance to fight Joshua in front of nearly 80,000 people.
It will be the Londoner's first outing since April's memorable battle with Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium and anybody selected by the IBF as their mandatory challenger would have represented a noticeable step down for the champion.
But McCracken insists he will not be letting his young charge take his eye off the ball with potential 2018 unifications in store should he win.
“It's not ideal to have a change of opponent after a couple of months of getting prepared for Pulev,” said softly spoken McCracken, who is also performance director for Great Britain's amateurs.
“Takam's busy, he's a good fighter, he's pretty dangerous. Josh has got to take him deadly serious. We trained for Pulev completely, there was no suggestion that he wasn't going to go through with the fight.
“This is boxing, opponents change, AJ is in great shape and looking forward to boxing on the 28th and defending his world titles.”
Long before Joshua turned professional in 2013, McCracken trained former multiple world super-middleweight champion Carl Froch, who also had to regularly deal with mandatory challengers.
However the Nottingham man nearly came unstuck in 2013 when he did not take seriously the threat of a young upstart from London who came close to taking his titles on a frantic night in Manchester.
George Groves had been installed as Froch's mandatory but the ageing champion admitted that he had cut corners in training camp and almost paid the price.
Groves dropped Froch heavily in the first round with a hard right hand from which the champion did brilliantly to come back form. The older man eventually turned the tide to claim a controversial stoppage win in the ninth.
McCracken, however, is adamant there are no parallels with Joshua as he prepares for his IBF mandatory defence.
“It's very different,” he added. “I can still remember the conversation with Carl.
“It was the latter end of his career, he had just beaten Mikkel Kessler, which he had an ambition to do and George Groves became his mandatory, which he wasn't overly happy about.
“He was stubborn in camp and he should have prepared better for the first fight because Groves is a tough fighter as he has gone on to prove.
“But there's none of that with AJ because he has been a pro barely four years, whereas Carl had been over a decade a pro when he was grumbling about challenges from the UK for his world title.
“He enjoys it, Anthony, and he's not daft, he's looked at Takam, he is big, dangerous, powerful, he is a tough challenger, but he expected that from Pulev. It's just as difficult a challenge as Pulev in our eyes.”
Takam, the Cameroon-born Frenchman, has never boxed in Britain but has some experience of London heavyweights after sparring David Haye.
And the 36-year-old, who is 35-3-1, says he will not be overawed by the pro-Joshua crowd in Cardiff.
“I’m not bothered about fighting in front of 80,000 people,” Takam said. “The only people in the ring will be myself and Joshua, nothing else matters except the two athletes.
“I don’t see all those people when I’m in the ring.
“A lot of people have asked me if I see any weaknesses in Joshua’s style. All I can say is we will see on fight night. I do know that he has a lot of quality.
“It will be just as important to work Joshua’s body as well as the head, and my speed will be important too,” said Takam. “If I can do things differently from what other boxers have done against him, I’ll have a chance to win by knockout.
“I have sparred David Haye in the past and it was very competitive sparring, it was very interesting. You never know, maybe one day, David and I will fight in a real match.”
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