Former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua(30-4, 27 KOs) had one assignment on Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had to beat the lightly regarded Kristian Prenga(20-2, 20 KOs) so he could put himself in a position to fight former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury sometime in the fall.
On Friday, Fury handled his business when he stopped Mariusz Wach. Joshua would handle his business against Prenga, but it was very bumpy.
Joshua was dropped twice in Round 1 by Prenga, and there were some serious concerns about his ability to get out of the round, but he survived, and in the second round, he woke up.
He landed a right hand that would drop Prenga through the ropes, and the referee waived the fight off, and now we have an All-British heavyweight showdown between Fury and Joshua.
After defeating Prenga, Joshua made it clear what he would do to Fury.
“I’m gonna rip his heart out,” Joshua said. “I’m the meanest, most vicious champion there’s ever been.”
However, if you’re a serious heavyweight contender, you don’t get dropped twice by Prenga. That should never happen, but to his credit, Joshua did win the fight.
Joshua returned to the ring after he lost two close friends, Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele, in a car accident in Nigeria last December, which may have impacted his performance, and that is understandable. Joshua was emotional after the win and talked about his two friends.
“It’s more than punch power,” Joshua said. “That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina, that was the families. It hurts even talking about it. It’s been tough. It’s my brothers, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
Look, at 36 years old, Joshua is not in his prime, and at 37, Fury is not the same either, which could make for a very interesting and exciting fight. Two diminished fighters often lead to fireworks.
Obviously, the fight is two to three years too late. However, both fighters are still big names, and the public will buy it.
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