It has been six months since AJ was in the ring, and it shows; it was ring rust, and it was obvious that he was emotionally drained from all the build-up.
The first round was a rollercoaster which Tony Bellew referred to as ‘chaos’ during the post-fight analysis. Prenga came out of the blocks and hit Joshua with a right uppercut that Joshua didn’t see coming. Joshua hit the canvas but survived the eighth count, but his legs were still shaky when he got up. Prenga then hit them with a second right hand, which he saw coming, so he was able to absorb the punch. With a 7/10 round for Prenga in round one, Joshua knew that he had to do something special to redeem himself, which he did.
In the second round, he went back to his boxing, where it was routine with the stick-and-move method, which paid off as Joshua hit him with a right hand and went for a double combination with a right hand, which Prenga hit the canvas, knowing that was the end of the night.
Joshua came through this fight because of his experience. If Joshua were fighting any of the top ten heavyweights, he would have been knocked out in the first round. This win for Joshua set up the British heavyweight clash against Tyson Fury. Both fighters cannot back out now; otherwise, fight fans will not be happy. According to Eddie Hearn, a date has been pencilled for November, and this fight needs to happen on British soil because British heavyweight boxing has been leading the way for the last decade or so. Joshua and Fury must happen.