Anthony Joshua didn’t look himself in changing room before Prenga fight as fears for health in Tyson Fury battle grow

ANTHONY JOSHUA needs protecting now more than ever before. With a sporting legacy etched forever into the fabric of modern British culture – thanks to his heroics at the London 2012 Games and double world title wins – a beautiful 10-year-old son and a financial fortune that must be edging close to half a billion pounds, he has NOTHING left to fight for. Anthony Joshua was apparently not himself ahead of his bout with Kristian Prenga Credit: Reuters There are growing concerns over whether AJ is ready to take on Fury so shortly after his accident Credit: Getty His brilliance in the ring has been surpassed by his boy-next-door decency outside of it. When people close to him have died unexpectedly, he has paid for their funerals. When the pandemic threatened hundreds of amateur boxing clubs, he saved them. Dozens of wayward kids around North London use his Clean Herts charity programme to better themselves. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! So when we hear the golden boy – who gave silver spoons to hundreds of Team GB boxers who have followed in his footsteps – welcome the idea of dying in one of those ruthless square circles, British fight fans should worry. AJ’s nailbiting win over unknown rank-outsider Kristian Prenga on Saturday night – on the surface to casual fans – looked a thrilling Rocky-like affair. The second rounding thumping of the 6ft 5in Albanian knockout artist was only topped by the theatrical tub thumping for the overdue November fight with Tyson Fury. But a scratch across the service and a chat with close friends in Jeddah paints a very different story of a fine young man fighting for all the wrong reasons. One man close to the camp said: “People will question if he should be boxing and – on that performance – maybe he shouldn’t. But, right now, the way things are, the alternative is probably only a total breakdown”. In September 2024, AJ was knocked down four times at the England football stadium he made his home. Daniel Dubois made a meme of him at Wembley. Most read in Sport SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS Joshua powered through a scary first round to stop Prenga in the second Credit: AFP Fifteen months later – following the umpteenth axing of his most recent training team – he needed SIX clumsy rounds to break the jaw of YouTube boxing joke Jake Paul. Ten days later, on a drive alongside one of Nigeria’s most dangerous motorways, a car carrying Joshua and best pals and team-mates Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele smashed into the back of a stationary lorry. The two vital members of AJ’s tightknit team – sat on the obliterated right hand side of the vehicle – died instantly. And Joshua – by a frightening stroke of fate sat behind the driver – had to walk past their bodies to escape the carnage. The fact that seven months later he was back in a boxing ring, risking his own life, is baffling. A feat of super-human strength and courage, that everyone can empathise with but nobody can understand. But SunSport understands that he was almost unrecognisable in the changing room moments before the comeback bout, “like a zombie” according to one source. And as beautiful and pure as the tribute to Latz and Sina was, written into the canvas in Joshua’s red corner, it now looks one burden too many for the ultimate alpa male to carry. The fact Fury did not even show up to the Jeddah Superdome and AJ was left hollering into the rapidly emptying arena, for his nemesis to help lighten the mood, felt so demoralising. But on the stage moments later, still in the same camouflage gear he had boxed in, he welcomed tough questions aimed at him – hopefully recognised it was friendly fire – and told us all, as usual, not to worry about him. When SunSport asked if the 21-second knockdown Prenga hit him with proved he had returned too soon and if the financial implications of the Fury fight were worth risking his long-term health were, he said: “Do or die. “You can’t be in this game and worrying about going home to your family – or your health – and stuff like that. “You have to be willing to die in that ring. Joshua found himself on the canvas not once but twice during the fight Credit: Getty The heavyweight pointed to his recovery when asked if the knockdowns hinted at a decline Credit: AP “When you have that mentality, because you want greatness so bad, you’ve got a great chance of achieving something big. “So today was a small glimpse of what’s going on in my heart – and how much I want this fight with Fury – and how much I want to make some history.” When we asked if the six-minute shootout was bonafide evidence that AJ still carries his trademark explosive power – but also that his chiselled chin is now malfunctioning, he cracked back. “We got back up,” he rightly and proudly boasted. “Got back up, took a beating, stood the storm and came back in round two. “That is resistance. Resistance is spirit. Resistance is durability. Resistance is everything combined. It’s not just one thing. Winning isn’t just one thing. “It’s a whole heap of things. So, for me, I showed you where I’m at.” Almost everybody outside the Fury camp cares where AJ is at and, tellingly, even one man very firmly in the Gypsy King’s court had the best advice for Joshua throughout the whole fight week. Ireland’s former middleweight world champion Andy Lee, a cousin and assistant trainer to the 6ft 9in Traveller, told SunSport that the clash with his kin was coming around too soon. Lee – one of the most respected and unbiased voices in the sport, who has never and will never earn a penny out of Joshua – quietly urged the Watford hero to take more time, one more warm-up fight. But every other voice on the promotions payroll foghorned that Joshua was in better form than EVER before and that Prenga would be a quick stepping stone to the Fury windfall that will make even the smallest shareholder a very wealthy man. What we saw in the Superdome ring – in the opening round in which AJ suffered two official knockdowns and perhaps should have been counted for a third when only the ropes held his stricken frame up – proved lonevoice Lee is one that needs listening too. When SunSport walked backstage after the wild two rounds, two boxing veterans with intimate knowledge of AJ’s career said now, more than ever, he needs honest people around him, telling him the truth. Joshua is set top fight Fury, but whether it will be held in the UK, the US or elsewhere is uncertain Credit: Getty The Home of Boxing in 2026 There's a massive year of boxing ahead! It’s shaping up to be a blockbuster year of action inside the boxing ring. The Gypsy King has beaten Mariusz Wach in his second fight of the year to set up a huge fight with Anthony Joshua And AJ did the same, knocking out Kristian Prenga in the second round of a thrilling encounter – the Brit was knocked down twice in the opening round. And Moses Itauma returns for his toughest fight yet against Filip Hrgovic in August. Here’s all the big fights coming up… July Sun 26 – Errol Spence Jr vs Tim Tszyu August Sat 1 – Pierce O’Leary vs Mark Chamberlain – DAZN Sat 15 – Claressa Shields vs Kaye Scott – DAZN Sat 29 – Moses Itauma vs Filip Hrgovic – DAZN September Sat 12 – Conor Benn vs Ryan Garcia – DAZN *If you click a link in this boxout, we will earn affiliate revenue. But as those wise words were imparted, a look back into the crowded ring revealed friends and family members dancing around the probably concussed breadwinner. The new training team of Oleksandr Usyk’s reserve squad cannot really care about him, they cannot alter the style or technical ability of a 36-year-old man preparing for one last shift, they are just grabbing whatever slice of the Fury pie they can. That’s the hurt business. The punches that scrambled Joshua’s brain were not the skull-shaking shots he has shipped in the past. A close-range uppercut grazed him, a predictable right hand caught the tip of his chin. And both of them – from a D-level opponent – almost ended his career. Thankfully Fury’s body is also letting him down at a drastic rate – his Friday night Pattaya win over 46-year-old Mariusz Wach was a tale of two middle-aged men – in the sex tourism capital of the world – getting an easy touch. But Fury now has four months to taunt and tease Joshua and undermine everything he has done in his career. Joshua has never ever been more physically and psychologically vulnerable. And he is going in against one of the sharpest minds and quickest tongues the sport has ever seen. While 99 per cent of the world will want to wrap Joshua in cotton wool and aid his recovery, Fury – as is his total right in this brutal dog-eat-dog blood sport – is going to viciously pick him apart, whittling him down to the weakest version of himself. Among all that trash talk he is going to have to listen to, let’s hope a couple of brave voices are willing to risk the biggest payday in British boxing history and offer AJ an alternative ending to his story. Not that he would listen. Big Josh is in too deep, gone too long, and feels he owes the world the Fury fight. When really he has already given us – and lost – way too much. Comment now