Anthony Joshua cleared his final hurdle in the ring, before he fights Tyson Fury in November, but he was knocked down twice, shockingly, in the first round of his wild and chaotic bout with Kristian Prenga. In the early hours of Sunday morning in Jeddah, a devastating knockout in the second left Prenga crumpled in a heap on the canvas, wrapped up in the ropes, and rescued Joshua from humiliation.<\/p>\n
After the opening three minutes his extravaganza with Fury looked as if it was about to end in abject ruins but Joshua pulled himself out of a dark pit streaked with defeat to salvage his career \u2013 and his much-hyped fight with his British compatriot. This was a crazy firefight of a tune-up for Joshua, who was boxing for the first time since being injured in the car accident that took the lives of two of his closest friends, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, last December.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s back\u201d was emblazoned on the big screen behind the figure of Joshua as he walked at a steady, even sombre pace towards the ring. A booming Meek Mill track echoed around him while the faces of Ghami and Ayodele briefly filled the screen. Wearing a camouflage top and trunks, he then turned and quietly greeted Oleksandr Usyk, a new ally sitting ringside.<\/p>\n
Joshua had trained hard with Usyk and his team in the buildup to his arrival in Jeddah. Usyk remains the best heavyweight in the world and Joshua, having lost both his battles with the Ukrainian, had resolved with some humility that he needed to learn from his previous rival. With Usyk\u2019s trainers in his corner, and coming into the ring lighter than he has been for years at 251lb, Joshua was apparently determined to resemble a much sharper and sleeker fighter against Prenga.<\/p>\n
Kristian Prenga surprises Anthony Joshua and knocks him down in the first round. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa\/Reuters<\/p>\n
After a fleeting prayer in his corner, Joshua stepped towards the centre of the ring and, within 20 seconds, the unheralded Prenga had floored him heavily with a crunching right uppercut. Joshua got up quickly, looking dazed. Halfway through the round, with his legs still unsteady, Joshua was rocking against the ropes. With 30 seconds left in the first Joshua was down again. He hauled himself up, shaking his head, with defeat closing in on him. It had been a disastrous round but Joshua fired back just before the bell.<\/p>\n
Fury must have been cursing as the biggest money-making contest in the history of British boxing looked on the brink of obliteration. But, Joshua came out in the second with real purpose and quickly hurt the strangely tentative Albanian, who was already backing away before the damaging punches landed. It was almost as if Prenga could not believe he had come so close to knocking out the feted former world champion.<\/p>\n
With 20 seconds left in the round, a jolting jab set up Joshua as he landed two heavy right hands. Sensing a seismic turnaround, Joshua unleashed a pulverising right which landed with brutal force and separated Prenga from his suddenly scrambled senses. It was immediately obvious that he would be counted out.<\/p>\n
Joshua decisively knocks down Prenga in the second round \u2026 Photograph: Ali Issa\/AP\u2026 and the Albanian lies across the bottom rope. Photograph: Ali Issa\/AP<\/p>\n
Joshua celebrated exuberantly, climbing on the ropes and raising his hands in jubilation, but it was more telling to see how a shaken Usyk just drew in a deep breath of relief.<\/p>\n
A bizarrely uneven victory followed Fury\u2019s contrastingly routine defeat of Mariusz Wach<\/a>, a faded Polish journeyman, in Pattaya, Thailand, on Friday night. Fury dominated a one-sided scrap before Wach was rescued by his team after they decided he could not come out for the eighth round.<\/p>\n
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