Joshua survives early scares as Fury fight edges closer

JEDDAH: Anthony Joshua came through two first-round knockdowns to stop Albania’s Kristian Prenga in the second round early on Sunday, preserving momentum for a long-anticipated showdown with Tyson Fury.

Joshua, 36, had been expected to win comfortably at the Jeddah Superdome, but the contest veered sharply off script when Prenga floored him twice in the opening round. Joshua recovered in the second, driving a sequence of punches into Prenga’s head and leaving him draped over the bottom rope, half out of the ring, before the referee completed the count.

Reflecting on the scare, Joshua told reporters, “Those moments show what type of person you are because they’re not things that we prepare for. You know, deep in your heart, you will come in life to a minute, at a moment, at a second, where you need to click it to get.” He added, “And there was a flight-or-fight moment, and I chose to fight. Now, we had some big plans on the horizon, there’s been a lot of talk around this Tyson Fury fight. Is it (going to happen)? Where is it? When? And it nearly got stripped away from us within three minutes, and I said, ‘no, no, no, no’.”

Attention quickly returned to Fury after the bout. The 37-year-old had already recorded a warm-up victory on Friday, and Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said the all-British heavyweight contest is agreed but should be staged at home rather than overseas.

“Not unless you want to renegotiate the contract,” Hearn said when asked about the possibility of the fight being moved outside the United Kingdom. He said the Joshua camp had pushed for a domestic venue, adding, “I want the fight in the UK. This is a British fight.” Hearn also said, “Let’s be honest, this is a fight for the British public... this is something that will be remembered across all generations, forever,” before adding that, “There’s nothing I need to do to make the fight - the fight’s signed, the fight’s made, so we’ll see what the next couple of weeks bring.”

Interest in a meeting between the two former heavyweight champions remains strong, particularly with Wembley Stadium seen as the natural setting for a bout long sought by British boxing fans, even as both men move into the later stage of their careers.

The Jeddah fight was Joshua’s first since a car crash in Nigeria in December that killed two of his close friends, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele. Asked in the ring about the last seven months, Joshua became emotional and said his comeback from danger against Prenga drew on more than physical strength. “That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina. That was family,” he said.