Anthony Joshua reacts to first round knockdowns in scary tune-up fight: ‘I learned a valuable lesson’
· Yahoo Sports
Anthony Joshua’s return to the ring after a year off almost went horribly wrong when his tune-up opponent Kristian Prenga came out guns blazing, knocking the former champion down twice in the first round (highlights here). Joshua would collect himself in the second and put Prenga’s lights out, saving the much-hyped Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury superfight that’s expected later this year.
There were a lot of questions about how “AJ” would look in his return. His last serious boxing match was a 2024 bout against Daniel Dubois that saw him get careless and KO’d in the 5th round. He then went and took a money fight against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, breaking the Influencer’s jaw with a straight right in the 6th round. Just weeks later, he’d survive a deadly car crash in Africa that took the life of two coaches.
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Following the bout, Joshua spoke with The Ring about the short but tough fight.
“I’m glad we can look forward to the future,” he said, referring to Joshua vs. Fury. “It was a tough moment in there early in the fight. But I learned a valuable lesson from that moment, you know? Start faster. Come out. F–k this boxing and come out and be ready. Like, you can do it in twenty seconds. If Prenga had a bit more luck on his side, he could have had me out there.”
“Do you know what I’m saying? Why wait 12 rounds, bro? Go [out] there and just let them know who’s the boss. It was a great lesson. Things didn’t go to plan, but I went with the storm and I came through in the end.”
Joshua said he wasn’t worried about the knockdowns as they happened in the ring.
“I was calm. I was calm,” he said. “Like I said, I’m in for a fight. Normally, things start heating up [round] four, five, six, and then so on. But things are heating up from the first thirty seconds. So I said, ‘I’m in for a good night here.’ But I was ready for it, though. Yeah. Mentally and and physically.”
Anthony Joshua knocks out Prenga in the second round pic.twitter.com/iUuzJ59CS5
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“I’m gonna come stronger now. I learned a lot in that moment. You’re gonna take a lot to stop me.”
He credited the comeback to waiting until he was properly focused on boxing before he returned to the sport.
“The reason why I took time out is because I wanted to get my life back on track for moments like this so that I’ll be ready,” he said. “If your heart and soul’s not in fighting, moments like that, you won’t get back up. No way. It’s too tough. But I’m good. I’m in a good place. That’s why I was smiling. I was like, ‘Let’s go.'”
Joshua’s warm-up fight is now over, and so is Fury’s — Tyson scored a seventh round win over Mariusz Wach this weekend as well, clearing the way for the long-awaited match between two of Britain’s most popular and successful fighters. Where and when that fight will take place is still a bone of contention, and promoters have managed to bungle this fight on the finer details before.
This time it was Prenga who almost blew the entire thing up, and maybe experiencing that will remind everyone involved that it’s now or never for Joshua vs. Fury to finally come together.