Two-time heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua recovered from a disastrous first round to stop Albanian opponent Kristian Prenga in the second round at the Jeddah Superdome on Saturday evening, ticking what should be one of the final boxes before the all-British showdown with Tyson Fury can be finalised.
Joshua was knocked down twice in the first round and looked unsteady on his feet after the first knockdown some 30 seconds into the fight. He was held up by the ropes later on in the round avoiding what looked as though it would have been a third knockdown.
But the second round started with Joshua looking more composed and Prenga choosing not to press the advantage he had built in the first round. The Brit landed a solid one-two early in the round and from there Prenga never re-found his feet, allowing Joshua to land a huge right hand that sent Prenga to the canvas and brought an early end to a bizarre see-saw fight.
Joshua was floored twice in a stunning opening round (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
This Saudi Arabia fight was designed to set up a long-awaited showdown with Fury, who comfortably defeated Polish opponent Mariusz Wach after seven rounds in Thailand on Friday in his own warm-up bout.
A Fury-Joshua fight has been a decade in the making. Contracts have been signed with the blockbuster bout expected to take place later this year, although it remains unclear if that would take place in the UK or the U.S..
Prenga was billed as something of a knockout artist having won all 20 of his victories by stoppage, but entered this bout as a relative unknown. The 35-year-old was riding a 14-fight win streak since suffering his lone career defeat at the hands of Giovanni Auriemma in 2017.
The Albanian had not, however, previously faced an opponent of Joshua's calibre or performed on this stage and he was always going to be a massive underdog for this bout.
This was Joshua's first fight since he was involved in a car crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of two close friends, Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz' Ayodele in December 2025.
Prenga was not able to recover from Joshua's hit in round two (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Joshua avoids disaster by recovering from early crisis
Analysis by Sarah Shephard
This was so very nearly a complete disaster for Joshua and the potential Fury fight. He's always had vulnerabilities and clearly, those are still very much present. But the positives are that he was able to survive a crisis in the ring and emerge victorious.
This was a physical, mental and emotional test for Joshua. It has been almost two years since he shared a ring with a legitimate heavyweight in Brit, Daniel Dubois — a fight that ended with a shock fifth round knockout of Joshua. That prompted a series of changes for the 36-year-old, leading him to join forces with former undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (who was also ringside in Jeddah) and his training team.
Joshua returned last December to take on YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami, stopping him in the sixth round of a bout that mostly bordered on farcical. The route to Fury then looked set: Joshua would have one more warm up fight in the early part of 2026 before moving on to the big one. Those plans were undone when 10 days later, the British boxer was involved in a tragic car crash which killed two of his closest friends and team members, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, in Nigeria.
Joshua was discharged from hospital after two days but earlier this week his promoter Eddie Hearn told the BBC that in the early stages of his recovery, just a slight movement in bed would be excruciating pain for the boxer. Later, he would do two hours' cycling on a stationary bike “when he couldn't move his upper body.â€
The mental and emotional turmoil following the loss of two men who had been by Joshua's side for the majority of his professional career will leave a far deeper scar than the physical wounds. Their presence was felt on Saturday night, not only in the tattoo of their names Joshua now has on his shoulder but in a written dedication on the ring canvas.
It was also clear during Joshua's post-fight interview in the ring that both men and their families remain at the forefront of his mind. Of the shot that finished the fight, Joshua said: “Its more than punch power — that was spirit. That was Latz that was Sina, that was the families.†Asked what the past seven months have been like for him, the emotion proved too much for Joshua. “Its been tough,†he said. “That's my brothers … I don't want to talk about it.â€
Joshua and his team were emotional after the bout (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
The conversation had started with talk of Fury, who Joshua seemed to believe was in the arena. “Have we got Tyson Fury in the room?†he called out, before being told that sadly, the 37-year-old was not in attendance. Nevertheless, Joshua made it clear that's still what he wants next, after so long waiting. “There's two side of this: one is fighting but also there's respect. I respect everything he's done but as a fighting person and someone who's been calling for this fight for a long time we're here now.â€
Tonight's performance perhaps poses more questions than it answers about Joshua's readiness for a fight of that magnitude, but it's worth remembering what he has been through over the past seven months when analysing it.
