{"id":709096,"date":"2026-07-24T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709096\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:22:09","slug":"anthony-joshua-v-kristian-prenga-josh-kelly-and-caoimhin-agyarko-ready-for-title-bout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709096\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua v Kristian Prenga: Josh Kelly and Caoimhin Agyarko ready for title bout"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the IBF world light-middleweight title in his possession, Josh Kelly feels “it’s a different version of me” since he dethroned Bakhram Murtazaliev as he promised to “put on a show” in his maiden defence against Caoimhin Agyarko on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kelly had to bide his time for his opportunity, but the silky 32-year-old from Sunderland grabbed it with both hands with a majority points decision verdict against the Russian in January, improving to 18 wins with one defeat and one draw.<\/p>\n

In some ways, 29-year-old Belfast challenger Agyarko has followed a similar path, enjoying big promotional backing in spells under the Queensberry and Matchroom banners, but was cut adrift by the latter following 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

Kelly, who had to rebuild from a 2021 defeat by David Avanesyan, has rattled off eight successful wins, culminating in his title victory over Murtazaliev<\/a> in Newcastle, dropping the champion in the fourth before coming through a late storm and surviving his own 11th-round trip to the canvas.<\/p>\n

“Being a world champion does something to you,” Kelly said at Thursday’s final media 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":"With the IBF world light-middleweight title in his possession, Josh Kelly feels “it’s a different version of me”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-709096","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\/709096","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=709096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}