{"id":710962,"date":"2026-06-02T19:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710962\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:15:09","slug":"we-can-go-in-with-momentum-hearn-on-anthony-joshuas-fury-tune-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710962\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We can go in with momentum\u2019: Hearn on Anthony Joshua\u2019s Fury tune-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are on the collision course for late 2026, but Joshua has business to take care of first in what is expected to be, frankly, an easy tune-up fight against Kristian Prenga on July 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Promoter Eddie Hearn sees the tune-up as necessary, and also remembered Fury saying Joshua didn\u2019t need any tune-up, which Hearn disagrees with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cHe said to us, \u2018Oh, you don\u2019t need another fight.\u2019 We had four rounds with Jake Paul, I mean, in two years of boxing, like, come on,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZFn2tXm1y6\/?img_index=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hearn told Sky Sports<\/a> after today\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Joshua (29-4, 26 KO) actually went into the sixth round with Paul last December, though keen-eyed observers may agree that there were about four rounds of actual work in that fight, possibly less. Joshua hadn\u2019t fought since September 2024, when he was knocked out by Daniel Dubois, and that really was his last serious, competitive fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Really, it\u2019s his only serious, competitive fight since 2023, as before Dubois, he fought Francis Ngannou in another check-cashing novelty affair, where he trounced the former UFC champion inside of two rounds, after Ngannou had given Fury some real trouble in 2023, only adding fuel to their long-running headlines rivalry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Hearn also says he saw something in Fury\u2019s April win over Arslanbek Makhmudov that Joshua may be able to capitalize on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cYou had 12 rounds with Makhmudov at Tottenham. But you still feel like you need more rounds to prepare yourself for Anthony Joshua. But let me tell you something now, more rounds ain\u2019t gonna help you. Because I see it. When Makhmudov came forward in that fight \u2014 I just know what AJ\u2019s gonna do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cIf we keep this confidence, if we can go in there and put a great performance together [against Prenga], we go into that Tyson Fury fight with so much momentum. This will be a major moment for the sport. But [the Prenga fight] has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Fury vs Joshua \u2014 or Joshua vs Fury, whatever it winds up being for promotional JPEGs \u2014 is expected to take place in November or December.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are on the collision course for late 2026, but Joshua has business to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,85],"class_list":["post-710962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}