The bout in Saudi this weekend between Anthony Joshua and Kristian Prenga is going to be the fight of the summer. Both fighters are coming into this fight with something to prove. Prenga is set to let the world know that his 20 fights and 20 knockouts are not accidental, and there is actually fight intelligence behind the knockouts that he has recorded. AJ has got a fight with Fury lined up, and the fight with Fury is very lucrative, and it could be the biggest fight in British history.
After the tragedy in December where two of his closest friends died, and having a near-death experience, AJ knows that life is too short not to take the chance to go for the undisputed heavyweight championship. AJ knows that he needs to fight a credible fighter to show the world that he is serious about this fight with Fury. Prenga is no joke and is serious about ruining this lucrative fight against Fury and Joshua. Prenga has serious punching power, and Joshua knows this.
However, Joshua has made changes to his camp, and pairing with Usyk shows that AJ is serious and wants to learn the boxing game. AJ has the strength; his chin is questionable, and his boxing IQ is not as good as Usyk. Joshua has the fighting spirit, and speaking before this fight, Joshua mentioned that “he was not focused on boxing and he wanted to be a businessman, but Barry and Eddie Hearn have helped me to close some of the businesses down, especially the businesses that were not doing well, and now my focus is on boxing”. In his last outing, he stopped Jake Paul and broke his jaw and made Paul retire from boxing permanently.
Eddie Hearn has noted before this fight that AJ will need to use his boxing skills to neutralise the punching power of Prenga, and AJ can do this because his training experience with Usyk will pay dividends on Saturday. AJ should make this fight easy and make Prenga look like a novice; if he doesn’t, all his plans for boxing are over.