Done Deal:Derrick James concluded his decision that Anthony Joshua should……raed more.

James, though, says Joshua (25-3, 22 KO) simply performed the game plan as laid out, executing properly and doing some of what they’d worked on in the gym.

He also told The DAZN Boxing Show that he was happy to take any of that criticism.

“Be mad at me. Talk about me,” he told hosts Ak and Barak. “It was all strategy, it was all game plan, he followed it and did exactly what I asked him to do. So be mad at me.”

James also said that when starting to train Joshua, he had to check himself and not try to train him the way he does Errol Spence, Jermell Charlo, or Frank Martin, because Joshua “isn’t where they are” technically.

“I had to self-assess myself and say, ‘I can’t train him like I train Errol, Jermell, Frank,’ because he’s not where they are. With fame and success, yeah, but it’s not about that, it’s from the technical education aspect of it, he’s not where they are. Some of the things they do, I can’t even think about it.

There’s not a lot of skilled boxers in boxing, period. They mimic Floyd, or they mimic somebody they’ve seen, but when they talk about what AJ’s doing, who are they comparing him to? It’s the whole of boxing. Most of the good fighters who are good now mimic Floyd. Is it really them or is it something they’ve seen? When what you imitate, you didn’t get enough depth from wha.

“I was happy because he did exactly what I wanted him to do. People said they wanted him to do this and that, but that wasn’t in my plan. When you’re getting with somebody new, you have to simplify it to where he’s not thinking about it, that he can just do it naturally.

“So when people say, ‘We saw the same old AJ,’ no, you didn’t see the same old AJ, because of the movements and everything that he did to take away from (Jermaine Franklin). Jermaine Franklin’s a tough fighter and he’s going to fight you until the end, but we never let him get into the fight.

It was a good fight. Would I have wanted him to knock him out? Yeah, cool, because listen, I like (knockouts), but I don’t ask my guys to do that, because it’s a whole lot of pressure. I would rather not put a lot of pressure on them and have them do what they do. My whole thing was to fight Franklin, get past this, and keep working on his depth. The fight that people want to see him fight, they’re gonna see it eventually, because after this fight, we’ll get another fight, and with more time — in three weeks, we’ll get it back poppin’.”

I wanted to test him on something simple. He followed the strategy. If anybody wants to talk about Joshua, talk about me, because I did the game plan and the strategy. He just did what I asked him to do. If I told him to mash the gas, pick up the pace a little bit — I think Franklin was so discouraged that he could have easily knocked him out.

Be mad at me. Talk about me. It was all strategy, it was all game plan, he followed it and did exactly what I asked him to do. So be mad at me.”

I thought the consistency of it all, to me it’s the whole thing. To be able to follow a strategy — and really, you’re kind of holding yourself back as a fighter sometimes. He did what I asked him to do, work on the stick. Because there’s so many other things I could tell him to do that he was working on in the gym, but I had to dial back and simplify it. Let me make it where he doesn’t have to think about it, he just does.

So people say, ‘The same old’ — listen, man, you’ve never seen him take away every attribute of (an opponent). (Franklin) is a counter-puncher, we know that. So he didn’t counter-punch. If he was able to counter-punch him, (Joshua) blocked the shot, or (Franklin) was in a position where he couldn’t do a counter-shot at all.”

No doubt. I’m watching Franklin and I said, ‘He throws a lot of check hooks, so make sure you keep conscious, when you throw the jab and whatever else you’re doing, be conscious about the defensive aspect of it, to block the shot.’ He did everything I asked him to do. If people have grief or whatever, come talk to me. … (And Joshua) did a little bit of (countering) in the fight, he started to counter a little bit with the right.”

I had to self-assess myself and say, ‘I can’t train him like I train Errol, Jermell, Frank (Martin),’ because he’s not where they are. With fame and success, yeah, but it’s not about that, it’s from the technical education aspect of it, he’s not where they are. Some of the things they do, I can’t even think about it.