In a dramatic show, Anthony Joshua suffered two knockdowns, before recovering to knock.out Kristian Prenga in the second round of his boxing fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The British heavyweight, with Nigerian heritage was fighting for the first time since surviving the December car crash in Nigeria that led to the death of his close friends Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele.
He was damaging rocked by a huge uppercut from Prenga in the first round, and then hit the floor again later in the round.
At that point he seemed on the brink of one of the biggest shock defeats in heavyweight history, with the long-awaited Tyson Fury fight looking dead on arrival.
But Joshua unleashed one of the greatest escapes of his career, and now that fight against Fury is on.
He released his right hand in the second round, with the final shot sending Albanian Prenga crashing down and forcing the referee to halt the contest.
“It’s more than punch power. That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina, that was the families. It hurts to even talk about it. It has been tough,” Joshua, 36, said.
He choked up and stepped away from the microphone, before adding: “It’s my brothers. I don’t want to talk about it.”
There had been speculation fellow Briton Fury might make a appearance despite insisting he would not attend.
But the master of mind games stayed true to his word, with Fury nowhere to be seen barely 24 hours on from his own warm-up win over Mariusz Wach in Thailand.
“I respect everything he has done and everything that he has achieved, but as a fighting person, we’re here now. I hope the fans will be in for a lovely treat,” Joshua said about the prospect of fighting Fury.
