{"id":828984,"date":"2026-07-28T11:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828984\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T11:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:57:20","slug":"boxing-news-2026-anthony-joshua-beats-kristian-prenga-calls-out-tyson-fury-first-fight-since-nigeria-car-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828984\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing news 2026: Anthony Joshua beats Kristian Prenga, calls out Tyson Fury, first fight since Nigeria car crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua<\/a> recovered from two early knockdowns to stop Kristian Prenga in the second round of a non-title heavyweight fight on Sunday (AEST).<\/p>\n

The former two-time world champion Joshua was fighting for the first time since surviving a car crash in Nigeria in December that injured him and killed his friends Sina Ghami and Latif \u2018Latz\u2019 Ayodele<\/a> and got the job done early. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anthony Joshua battles with Albania\u2019s Kristian Prenga.\u00a0Ali Issa<\/p>\n

Joshua acknowledged his friends straight after improving his record to 30-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than punch power,\u201d Joshua said of his knockout. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was spirit. That was Latz and Sina. That was the family. You know what I mean? That hurts even talking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Prenga) gave me a good test but this is what champions do, we rise. We get knocked down and stand up. That is life, that is life\u2019s motto.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joshua was flattened by an uppercut inside 30 seconds. He beat the count but looked seriously shaken.<\/p>\n

Prenga laid out Joshua again, with Joshua rising before the end of the count and survived to the bell.<\/p>\n

A quick end was expected but nobody thought it would be Prenga\u2019s. Joshua unleashed a flurry of fists and finished Prenga with a right hook, sending the Albanian through the bottom of the ropes.<\/p>\n

The turnaround shocked even heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk, whose face ringside was caught by TV cameras.<\/p>\n

The comeback also possibly saved a showdown between Joshua and Tyson Fury<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Joshua\u2019s manager Eddie Hearn claims his fighter and Fury have signed a contract to meet for the first time later this year, but on condition they came through warm up bouts this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the fans will be in for a lovely treat,\u201d Joshua said about fighting Fury.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anthony Joshua took victory. \u00a0Richard Pelham<\/p>\n

Fury played his part by coming out of retirement this year and on Saturday forcing 46-year-old Polish journeyman Mariusz Wach to retire in round seven in Thailand.<\/p>\n

Joshua almost blew his part of the claimed contract but even as Prenga brought a 20-1 record with 20 KOs into the match up with Joshua, it was the British boxer who came out victorious. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua recovered from two early knockdowns to stop Kristian Prenga in the second round of a non-title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-828984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828984","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=828984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}