Anthony Joshua’s trainer eager for ‘AJ’ to buck weight trend in March

Ever since his 2016 meeting with Dominic Breazeale, Anthony Joshua has weighed in progressively heavier for each of his fights.

Despite claims from promoter Eddie Hearn that we would see a more trimmed down Joshua for his most recent bout, a tenth round victory over late replacement Carlos Takam in Cardiff, 'AJ' came in heavier than ever at 18st 2lbs last October. Fight by fight, we see a bigger Joshua but trainer Robert McCracken is eager for the undefeated heavyweight to buck that trend when he takes to the scales next. We can expect confirmation of Joshua's unification clash with Joseph Parker in the coming days, with the fight scheduled to go down on March 31 in Cardiff, and McCracken hopes to see Joshua weigh in lighter than he has for any of his last three outings, setting the 28-year-old a target of 17st 10lbs. "The emphasis is on being as quick as possible and taking as little punishment, [being] a bit lighter would allow him to do that," McCracken told BBC Radio 5 live's boxing podcast. Parker was hoping to slim down in order to be more mobile than Joshua come fight night but, apparently, the London 2012 gold medallist has become less focused on bulk in recent weeks and is leaner than he's been in some time. "He's a bit lighter [than he was in his last fight] at the minute, he's probably eased off a bit on the conditioning side of things strength wise," McCracken added. "We do 12 weeks for his fights so I can give him some days off during the camp here and there as we go. He's done four weeks with me in London before Christmas - boxing and cardio - so he's in good shape, sharper and a little bit leaner than he was of late."