Anthony Joshua Clash with Tyson Fury Revived After Prenga Hurdle

After just 20 seconds, the biggest fight in British boxing had seemingly gone up in smoke in Jeddah’s desert air. Anthony Joshua was flat on his back and a long-awaited showdown with Tyson Fury was hanging in the balance. One More knockdowns, one astonishing comeback and a second-round knockout later, the blockbuster bout was revived. But after one of the wildest nights of Joshua’s career against Kristian Prenga, the Fury fight suddenly feels like a very different contest. “That was chaos. Absolute chaos. Just madness,” former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew said on DAZN. Anthony Joshua survived two knockdowns in round one to win his 30th pro fight with a stoppage victory over Kristian Prenga The emotion of Joshua’s comeback victory cannot be overstated. Given everything he has endured since the tragic car crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of his close friends Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele, simply stepping back into the ring was an achievement. Sentiment aside, though, had Albanian Prenga pressed home his advantage after dropping Joshua twice in the opening round, the story could have been very different. Prenga arrived with an impressive record – 20 knockouts from 20 victories and one defeat – but had never operated anywhere near this level or under this kind of spotlight. “I think we need to look at that first round and look at how easily AJ was hurt. We can’t just skip past that,” 5 Live boxing pundit Steve Bunce said. “We saw a man in a very bad place come through an even worse situation and emerge victorious at the end. That will be the story. “However, once we step back, we need to keep looking at that first round and start asking: how much further do we want to push him?”