Anthony Joshua is to set up camp in Miami, United States of America five weeks before his world heavyweight title defence against Jarrell Miller and will be based just 30 miles from the American’s training base.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Joshua is planning a quick knockout in his first fight in America and will leave nothing to chance by ensuring he has extensive warm-weather preparations.
The pair meet at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 1 and Miller is training in Fort Lauderdale, just to the north of Miami.
Joshua, the WBA, IBF and WBO champion, is seeking to make a big impact on his US debut.
He has prepared for his major British fights at the low-key Institute of Sport in Sheffield, where he was also based as an amateur.
But Hearn and manager Rob McCracken want to make sure he is perfectly acclimatised for the differing boxing and publicity set-up in the US ahead of the clash with unbeaten Miller.
Hearn said: “So much will be different and new for AJ. It’s not just about the five-hour time difference.
“It’s about the rules, the gloves, the way the commission works in New York and the way they want hands wrapped over there.
“It’s about the changing rooms at the venue, the ring walk and how all the publicity and press conferences will work in a fight week which will be huge and very noisy.
“So the aim is to get well settled in with plenty of time in advance and to have a great camp before going to New York for the build-up and the fight.
“We can’t just turn up at Madison Square Garden and walk out like we would at Wembley.
“Miller will be based in Florida too, which could be interesting. He’s had a lot to say already and will surely cause a lot of commotion as the fight gets nearer.
“AJ wants to knock him out quickly. Miller gets hit a lot early on and Anthony wants to take advantage of that. That would make a big impression on his first fight in America.
“But he’s also feeling some bad intentions towards Miller because of the way he has behaved.”
The brash 23-stone Miller, 30, shoved Joshua on stage at a press conference in New York in February and the pair have traded insults – a rare departure for the laid-back 29-year-old from Watford.
Hearn insists that Joshua has stifled the critics who claimed the clash with Miller would be unchallenging – after his major heavyweight rivals Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury abandoned plans for a rematch to take more low-key contests instead.
American WBC champion Wilder is to make a mandatory defence against Dominic Breazeale – who was knocked out by Joshua in 2016 – in Brooklyn on May 18.
Manchester’s Fury will meet little-known German Tom Schwarz in Las Vegas on June 15 in the first instalment of an £80million, five-fight deal with US TV giant ESPN.
