Anthony Joshua survives two first-round knockdowns to brutally KO Kristian Prenga and set up the Tyson Fury superfight

[Andy92]

Anthony Joshua's comeback fight nearly went badly wrong before it went right. Just 19 seconds into the first round in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Albania's Kristian Prenga caught Joshua cold with a right uppercut and dropped him to the canvas, then floored him a second time before the round ended, leaving Joshua looking genuinely unsteady heading into the second. Joshua composed himself between rounds, came out setting up his jab in round two, tagged Prenga with a right hand, then landed two more huge right hands that dropped Prenga against the ropes. He never recovered, and the fight was waved off at 2 minutes 43 seconds of the second round

The result keeps Joshua's path toward a long awaited all British superfight with Tyson Fury alive, a bout the two have reportedly been close to making at least three times before without it actually happening. Fury had already done his part the night before, stopping Mariusz Wach in seven rounds in a low key tune-up in Thailand. No date or location for a Joshua-Fury fight was announced after Saturday's result, and Fury did not appear at the Jeddah event, though Joshua addressed him directly afterward, saying there's two sides to this, fire and respect, I respect everything he's done, we're here now

The win carries real weight beyond the record, arriving just seven months after Joshua was a passenger in a car crash that killed his two close friends Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, whose names were honored on the fight canvas. Joshua had said beforehand that boxing was his purpose in life and that he wanted to look after his late friends' families going forward. The card also saw Hamzah Sheeraz retain the WBO super middleweight title via majority decision over Simon Zachenhuber, and Josh Kelly retain the IBF super welterweight title by unanimous decision against Caoimhin Agyarko, both undercard title defenses going the distance on what was otherwise a heavyweight headlined show