{"id":824842,"date":"2026-07-25T08:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T08:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824842\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T08:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T08:05:12","slug":"anthony-joshua-v-kristian-prenga-josh-kelly-and-caoimhin-agyarko-ready-for-title-bout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824842\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua v Kristian Prenga: Josh Kelly and Caoimhin Agyarko ready for title bout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Briton Josh Kelly says we will see a “different version” of him when he makes the first defence of his IBF light-middleweight title against Caoimhin Agyarko on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kelly rebuilt from his sole career loss in 2021 to beat Bakhram Murtazaliev and claim the title in January, winning the belt in his 20th professional bout.<\/p>\n

Belfast’s Agyarko has also overcome adversity to earn a seat at world title level, having been cut by promoter Matchroom after what was then a career-best win over Troy Williamson in 2023.<\/p>\n

Both men will walk to the ring in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight return against Kristian Prenga<\/a> fully aware of how tough it has been to get to this stage.<\/p>\n

“Being a world champion does something to you,” Kelly said at Thursday’s final news conference.<\/p>\n

“I thought it was a myth beforehand but how I’m going about my work in the gym is just different. It’s a different version of me.<\/p>\n

“When I have that confidence, it’s a hard night for anyone: ‘Boots’ [Jaron Ennis], [Sebastian] Fundora – any of them.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to come in on Saturday, show there’s levels to this game and put on a show.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Briton Josh Kelly says we will see a “different version” of him when he makes the first defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-824842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}