{"id":960488,"date":"2026-07-26T14:09:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960488\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T14:09:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T14:09:26","slug":"joshua-comes-back-twice-to-knock-out-prenga-and-set-up-fury-showdown-boxing-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960488\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua comes back twice to knock out Prenga and set up Fury showdown | Boxing News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua survives two knock downs by Albania\u2019s Kristian Prenga before winning the fight in the second round.<\/p>\n

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Published On 26 Jul 202626 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

Former two-time world champion Anthony Joshua recovered from two knockdowns to knock out Kristian Prenga in the second round of a dramatic non-title heavyweight fight in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The fight in Jeddah on Saturday was seen as the British boxer\u2019s final step before setting up a long-awaited showdown against his compatriot Tyson Fury.<\/p>\n

It also marked his return to the ring for the first time since a horrific car crash in Nigeria in December, during which Joshua lost two of his best friends and sustained injuries.<\/p>\n

\"BoxingPrenga, right, in action with Joshua [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Back inside the ring, Joshua was floored by an uppercut inside 30 seconds. He beat the count but looked seriously shaken.<\/p>\n

Then Prenga knocked Joshua down again, but the former heavyweight champion rose before the end of the count and survived until the bell in the first round.<\/p>\n

A quick end to the fight was expected, but nobody thought it would be Prenga\u2019s.<\/p>\n

In the second round, Joshua unleashed a flurry of punches and finished Prenga with a right hook, sending the Albanian through the bottom of the ropes.<\/p>\n

The turnaround shocked even heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk, whose face was caught by TV cameras as he watched from ringside.<\/p>\n

\"BoxingJoshua completed a stunning comeback win over Prenga [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

The comeback kept alive the possibility of an all-British fight between Joshua and Fury.<\/p>\n

Joshua\u2019s manager Eddie Hearn claims his fighter and Fury have signed a contract to meet for the first time later this year, but on the condition that they come through warm-up bouts this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the fans will be in for a lovely treat,\u201d Joshua told the crowd about fighting Fury following his win over Prenga.<\/p>\n

Fury played his part<\/a> by coming out of retirement this year and, on Friday, forcing 46-year-old Polish journeyman Mariusz Wach to retire in round seven in Pattaya, Thailand.<\/p>\n

Joshua almost blew his part of the claimed contract before showcasing his champion\u2019s fightback spirit.<\/p>\n

Prenga brought a 20-1 fight record with 20 KOs into the match-up with Joshua and looked every bit the knockout artist.<\/p>\n

Joshua, fighting for the first time since surviving the car crash that killed his friends Sina Ghami and Latif \u2018Latz\u2019 Ayodele, acknowledged them straight after improving his fight record to 30-4 (27 KOs).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than punch power,\u201d Joshua said of his knockout punch. \u201cThat was spirit. That was Latz and Sina. That was the family. You know what I mean? That hurts even talking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Prenga] gave me a good test, but this is what champions do: we rise. We get knocked down and stand up. That is life; that is life\u2019s motto.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BoxingJoshua poses for a picture with his the family of his friends, Latz and Sina, who died in a tragic car accident [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua survives two knock downs by Albania\u2019s Kristian Prenga before winning the fight in the second round.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":960489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[21354,3097,50,271,1926,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-960488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-boxing","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116986681226234535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}