Anthony Joshua was knocked down twice by Kristian Prenga before he rescued himself in the second round with a brutal stoppage of the previously obscure Albanian. The bedlam lasted just five minutes and 43 seconds, and after Joshua returned to his dressing room, he claimed to have learned “a valuable lesson”.
Joshua also looked ahead to the hugely anticipated fight with Tyson Fury after the two faded former world champions came through wildly contrasting bouts this weekend. “I’m gonna come back stronger now,” Joshua said as he tried to clear the concussive fog from his brain after the worst round of his tumultuous career.
Vulnerabilities Exposed
The sad truth rose with piercing clarity after just 20 seconds of the first round. A sweeping right hand, the first meaningful punch, rocked Joshua and set him up for Prenga’s jolting uppercut. While decent blows, it was disturbing to see how little punch resistance Joshua retains. He still cuts a sculpted figure but looked lost as he tumbled to the canvas. After rolling over and pushing himself up, his legs were rickety as a grimace crossed his face. After a count of eight, a sharp right cross sent him reeling into the ropes, and the referee could have given another count. Every time Prenga landed the right hand, even without undue force, Joshua was vulnerable. Another uppercut sent him down again, though his gloves only brushed the canvas.
A Dramatic Turnaround
But then everything changed. During the break between rounds, it seemed as if Prenga had shocked himself by dragging Joshua to the brink. Rather than closing the show, Prenga backed away, allowing Joshua to seize control. The Albanian was pinned in a corner and, throwing nothing in return, was suddenly under immense pressure. Successive combinations made him sag before a ferocious right hand poleaxed Prenga. Joshua deserves praise for his fortitude, but even that knockout could not erase the images of him weaving like a battered tree whenever he was tagged.
Having been injured seven months ago in the car accident which killed Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele, his close friends and key members of his camp, Joshua paid tribute: “It’s more than punch power. That was spirit. That was Latz, that was Sina, that was their families. It hurts to even talk about it. It has been tough. It’s my brothers.”
Joshua was close to tears. More worrying was his suggestion that personal tragedy gave him higher powers of recovery: “You know what I learned? I can’t be stopped, man – I can’t be denied.”
Concerns and the Fury Fight
His family, friends and promoters should all pause and take great care of him. It would be best if they advised Joshua he is no longer equipped to absorb heavy punishment from even a merely competent heavyweight. Younger fighters such as Moses Itauma and Daniel Dubois, who administered a crushing knockout in 2024, would have hurt him badly.
True, Fury was uninspiring when beating Mariusz Wach, a mediocre 46-year-old Polish heavyweight, after seven one-sided rounds in Thailand on Friday night. Wach still tagged Fury a couple of times as the old Gypsy King is no longer an elusive technician. But Fury remains a fighter to his core and could cause serious damage against such a reduced version of Joshua.
“We’ve signed the contract,” Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, said after his fighter’s lucky escape. “Everything is done. But tonight wasn’t about Tyson Fury. It was about the strength Anthony Joshua has shown to be here. No one knows what he’s been through the last seven months. When he went down in the first round, I thought he’d come back too soon.”
Yet, as Hearn conceded later, the signed contracts stipulate that Fury and Joshua will fight in the UK in November. It is now widely expected that the contest will take place in the US instead, and a new set of contracts could delay the circus yet again.
Reflecting on his near nightmare, Joshua added: “It was a tough moment but I learned a valuable lesson. Start faster. Come out, fuck this boxing, and be ready. You can do it in 20 seconds. If Prenga had a bit more luck on his side, he could have had me out of there.”
He also suggested that “today was a real good eye-opener.” It was, in the sense that his lack of punch resistance was stripped bare. In a business more sensible and compassionate than boxing, those close to him would try to persuade him to walk away with his riches and senses intact. Instead, he will be enticed back to fight Fury – a contest now freighted with danger and potential calamity as much as colossal money.
