{"id":827083,"date":"2026-07-27T14:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827083\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:21:11","slug":"are-tune-up-fights-worth-the-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/827083\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Tune-Up Fights Worth The Risk?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury<\/a> already had the mega-fight between them planned for later this year<\/a>, but both bruising big men decided it was wise to book tune-up fights before they traded heavy leather against each other.<\/p>\n

For Fury\u2019s part, he opted to face off against journeymen Mariusz Wach on Fri. July 24, 2026, in Thailand, a fight that was just bad for many reasons<\/a>. For starters, one would have thought that \u201cGypsy King\u201d already had his tune-up fight out of the way after defeating Arslanbek Makhmudov in April of this year<\/a>; therefore, facing another big man with a rather tepid resume seemed pointless and risky.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, fight fans were unable to watch because Fury was too busy trying to promote his Netflix reality series, At Home With The Furys, which is where you will be able to see the full bout months after it took place.<\/p>\n

For now, you can see the highlights of Fury\u2019s late technical knockout win right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for Joshua, he signed on the dotted line to face relatively unknown big man, Kristian Prenga, the following day (Sat., July 25, 206); however, that fight cost a whopping $60 on DAZN PPV<\/a>. And while many thought this would be a cakewalk for Joshua (which it ultimately turned out to be)<\/a>, the big man suffered a pretty good scare in the opening round after Prenga clocked him with an uppercut that sent him crashing to the canvas.<\/p>\n

After \u201cA.J\u201d answered the count, he wasn\u2019t exactly out of the woods \u2014 Prenga continued to pile on the punishment, dropping him one more time within the first three minutes of the fight. Thankfully, Joshua managed to escape the opening round, and ultimately went on to piece Prenga up to secure a thunderous technical knockout win in the second round.<\/p>\n

Watch that finish again right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tune-up fights aren\u2019t really new in the sport of boxing, but it doesn\u2019t mean I care for them all that much. Fury and Joshua are pros at the highest level and have taken on (and defeated) some of the best in the sport, reaching the pinnacle of the fight game at one point in their respective careers, so they don\u2019t need to warm up with scrimmages against junior varsity players.<\/p>\n

That said, many \u2014 myself included \u2014 are wondering if it was the right move after all. While Prenga nearly put cold water on the proposed Joshua vs. Fury fight, it seemed like the right call this time around given all Joshua has been through over the past few months. After knocking out Jake Paul back in Dec. 2025 (see it here<\/a>), Joshua was involved in a horrific car accident that claimed the lives of several of his close friends<\/a>. Seven months later, the bruising Brit decided to get back into the swing of things, and you could just tell he wasn\u2019t right in the first round.<\/p>\n

While he did manage to turn it around and get the win, one can\u2019t help but to wonder what would have happened had he jumped straight into the Fury fight. It\u2019s a safe bet that if Fury had Joshua in trouble in the very first round like Prenga did, things would not have ended well.<\/p>\n

So in hindsight, perhaps a layup of a matchup for Joshua was the right call in this instance, even if the risk almost derailed the mega-matchup. Being in the right mental state is equally (if not more important) than being physically fit in combat sports.<\/p>\n

That said, are you a fan of \u201ctune up\u201d fights in boxing? Would you have had an issue if Conor McGregor opted for a tune-up after years on the sidelines<\/a> before facing Max Holloway? Can you imagine the criticism had he — or any other world class MMA fighter — taken that route?<\/p>\n

For more boxing news and notes click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury already had the mega-fight between them planned for later this year, but both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,43957,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-827083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing-news-results","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827083","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=827083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}