{"id":615804,"date":"2026-06-01T20:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/615804\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:09:10","slug":"anthony-joshua-vs-kristian-prenga-british-heavyweights-focus-on-parents-of-crash-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/615804\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua vs Kristian Prenga: British heavyweight’s focus on parents of crash friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua says he is standing strong “as a soldier” for the parents of two close friends killed in a car crash as the British heavyweight prepares for his return to boxing.<\/p>\n

The two-time world champion was a passenger in the car when Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele died in Nigeria in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his first fight since the accident, in which Joshua sustained minor injuries, he will face the relatively unknown Albanian Kristian Prenga in Riyadh on 25 July.<\/p>\n

“You never overcome it but you gain perspective in life,” Joshua, 36, told the 5 Live Boxing podcast.<\/p>\n

“Life is humbling at times. You never know one’s fate. As a soldier, I stand strong for their parents first and foremost.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t about me. I feel it’s important to put their parents first at the minute.<\/p>\n

“I’ll have my time to grieve. But right now, my heart and mind tell me their parents are my main priority.”<\/p>\n

The 2012 Olympic gold medallist was speaking before Monday’s news conference in London where he came face-to-face with Prenga for the first time.<\/p>\n

Victory would clear the path for a long-awaited showdown against Tyson Fury<\/a> later this year.<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Joshua and Fury have been the defining figures of British heavyweight boxing on the global stage, yet have never shared a ring.<\/p>\n

An agreement is in place and both fighters are expected to earn career-high purses when they finally meet, with October or November the likely target dates.<\/p>\n

But the fight will only materialise if Joshua takes care of business against Prenga. Fury, meanwhile, is also understood to be planning an interim bout, potentially in Dublin on 1 August against an opponent yet to be named.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua says he is standing strong “as a soldier” for the parents of two close friends killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-615804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}