Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are both expected to come away without a scratch in their warm-up fights, finally setting up a long-awaited showdown, according to boxing legend Teddy Atlas.
Atlas expects easy wins for both heavyweights
Atlas expects the heavyweight icons to 'wipe the floor' with their respective opponents. Joshua will make a sensational return to the ring on Saturday night, seven months after being involved in a horrific car crash just days after knocking out Jake Paul. The former two-time heavyweight champion will take on unknown fighter Kristian Prenga in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Just over 24 hours before Joshua fights, Fury is expected to have a tune-up fight of his own. The 'Gypsy King' will meet Mariusz Wach behind closed doors in Thailand. Providing both men win, they will meet later this year. The pair finally agreed to a fight earlier this year and are expected to settle their 10-year feud in November.
Prenga vows to scupper plans
While Prenga has vowed to scupper those plans, Atlas is expecting a relatively easy night for both Fury and Joshua. In an interview with CanadaCasino, he said: 'I think the warm-up fights are pretty much foregone conclusions. I’m not knocking anyone who gets in the ring, but in a practical sense, they are foregone conclusions. Wach is 46 years old and has been knocked out five times.'
Atlas added: 'With Joshua and Prenga, I think it is all up to Joshua and how long the fight goes. But we don’t know where Joshua is emotionally coming off that near-fatal car accident. We don’t know how that has impacted him. We saw how a car accident may have impacted Errol Spence. With Joshua, I definitely tell you it has impacted him. I just don’t know how much and how. If he is in a halfway decent place, I think he goes behind the jab, catches Prenga and the fight is over, maybe in two rounds. If he is not, maybe he does not do anything for a few rounds and allows Prenga to survive. But at the end of the day, there should only be one guy left standing, and it should be Joshua.'
Atlas believes fight is a 'money grab'
Fans are eager to see both Joshua and Fury fight, but Atlas believes the bout has been made far too late, as both men have lost multiple times over the last few years. 'It’s definitely a money grab,' he said. 'Joshua is two fights on from being knocked out badly against Dubois, Fury has lost a couple of times to Usyk, and both of them have lost their most significant fights of recent times. There is no arguing that both of them have slippage in their performances and in their careers at this point in their lives. They are not spring chickens anymore. They have been in tough fights, and it shows.'
Atlas compared the fight to Ali vs. Frazier in Manila, saying: 'Ali and Frazier in Manila were too late. Their skills had been eroded, they had been diminished, but it became one of the great heavyweight fights because they were more available to each other than they would have been when their skills were sharper. The one thing that was not diminished was their character, their resolve, their determination and their championship qualities. So yes, Fury vs Joshua is late, and yes, it’s a money grab, but it still might give you some of that because they’re heavyweights.'
