Tyson Fury cousin and coach reveals why Anthony Joshua needs ANOTHER warm-up fight before Battle of Britain

TYSON FURY trainer Andy Lee genuinely feels Anthony Joshua needs ANOTHER warm-up fight before he pushes the fight with his cousin in 2027. The current plan for the biggest fight in British boxing history is for 36-year-old AJ to beat Kristian Prenga face his 37-year-old Gypsy King rival in November. Andy Lee is the cousin and assistant trainer to Tyson Fury Credit: Instagram @bodypuncher Anthony Joshua ahead of his fight with Kristian Prenga Credit: Getty However Lee, a rare combination of respected and unbiased voice in the sport, fears the harrowing December car wreck that Joshua somehow survived – but his two best friends did not – will still be too recent and raw in his memory. After a 15-year rivalry and a couple of infuriating near misses, it might be one of the most unpopular opinions in British boxing right now. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! But Limerick’s former WBO middleweight champion of the world says it with a duty of care for a fellow fighter and not as part of the Fury hype machine. Speaking to SunSport in Jeddah where he is coaching Ilford’s super-middleweight champ Hamzah Sheeraz, the 42-year-old said: “This is Joshua’s first fight since that horrible accident, when he lost two of his closest friends, I think about that a lot. “That is going to be echoing in his mind because they would have been here, they would have all been together, all through this week he would have been thinking about those guys. “It will be extremely difficult and it will affect his performance, he will take that into the ring, that weight. “And maybe he just needs this fight and this win to get that weight off him. “He will have been walking around in camp thinking: ‘they would have been here with me’. He will be remembering things they would have done together on their previous trips here, It’s going to be so tough for him. Most read in Sport BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS Anthony Joshua vs Kristian Prenga - all the info Anthony Joshua faces Kristian Prenga in his huge comeback fight 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. Anthony Joshua returns to the ring in July to face Kristian Prenga ahead of a potential blockbuster bout against Tyson Fury later in the year. The Gypsy King has beaten Mariusz Wach in his second fight of the year to hold up his end of the deal with AJ. And Moses Itauma returns for his toughest fight yet against Filip Hrgovic in August. Here’s all the big fights coming up… July Sat 25 – Anthony Joshua vs Kristian Prenga – DAZN PPV 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. “If I was AJ, I would take another fight. “I know people will go crazy, but put it back to next summer in Wembley and take another fight in between, I would, because of the mental hurdle.” Lee – in no serious comparison to Joshua’s heartbreaking double loss – remembered American mentor Manny Steward dying in 2012 and how hard he was hit for his first bout back five months later. Joshua’s devastation and undeserved guilt at surviving the Nigerian wreck will hit immeasurably harder than Lee losing the 68-year-old trainer. But the Irishman can explain how the sudden loss of someone so central to a fighter’s life-and-death career can affect a man. He explained: “I remember when I had my first back after Emmanuel died and I couldn’t… It just was not the same. It took me a while to get over. “He should take another fight, get active, not rush it. “I am Team Fury but I am thinking about the human and both of these guys are just normal people. “Even though they have slagged each other off in the past, they respect each other and the bond shared between people who suffer together is stronger than those who don’t. “They are from the same era and when they retire they will be as friendly as anything.” Comment now