British-Nigerian boxer Anthony Joshua defeated Kristian Prenga in their heavyweight clash at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
The 36-year-old bounced back from two knockdowns in the opening round to stop Prenga brutally in the second round, securing his first win since an auto crash on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in December last year. Joshua lost two close friends in the crash, who also served as his trainers.
The victory takes Joshua’s record to 30 wins from 34 fights, including 27 knockouts. For Prenga, it was only the second loss of his 22-fight professional career.
It was also Joshua’s 10th second-round knockout in a decorated career that has seen the Sagamu-born boxer become a two-time unified heavyweight world champion.
Prenga stunned Joshua with an uppercut inside 20 seconds and floored the Olympic champion, who beat the count. Seconds later, the London-raised fighter was dropped again and only just made it up before recovering to see out the round.
The second round was a different story. Joshua unleashed a flurry of punches before landing a devastating hook that nearly sent Prenga out of the ring. Prenga failed to land a punch in the round.
The win now puts Joshua on course to face Tyson Fury in the proposed ‘Battle of Britain’, with the date expected to be announced later this year.
