The more you watch it, the more concerning it becomes. Anthony Joshua looked like a shot fighter in round one of his fight with Kristian Prenga. Shaky legs, poor balance, suspect chin.
While the last thing to go is a fighter’s punch (as evidenced by AJ’s remarkable second-round resurgence), it’s hard to fight back when you’re unable to hold a shot from a top heavyweight.
Another alarming thing about last weekend’s main event, which I’m certainly not the only person to notice, was the monumental drop-off in levels from Prenga between rounds one and two.
No slow decline. No gradual slide as he tires out on the biggest stage of his life and the opponent comes back into the fight. Prenga fought round one like a wild bull, thrown into the middle of a party, swinging his horns and tail, smashing everything in sight as the shocked ringside party goers dived for cover.
After landing a bunch of accidental shots and realising just how much AJ had declined, his level of enthusiasm fell through the floor. He fought round two like a man scared of what he was about to achieve. Like, as some suggested online, a man who had a whisper in the ear. “Remember your role, son.”
Who knows what really happened in there, but as my pal Des remarked in our post-fight podcast, “It didn’t pass the sniff test.”
All in all, I make Tyson Fury a strong favourite should they meet later in the year. Am I overreacting to Joshua’s apparent decline? Should they even be fighting at all?
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DAZN commentary is driving me mad
Currently, I have to watch boxing with the sound muted. Adam Smith and his DAZN goons just annoy me too much. Was Smith always this bad at Sky? Perhaps he was and I never noticed before.
Luckily, I happened upon a German-language feed last weekend, so I could have some form of accompaniment and crowd noise (not much in Jeddah, granted) to listen to.
Lead commentator Smith seriously grinds my gears. He just never shuts up talking. During the fight itself, between rounds, between fights, he was even sneaking in words while the scores were being read out the other week. Darren Barker doesn’t help matters by calling him the “voice of boxing”.
A relentless voice that never stops. Effortlessly transitioning between topics, leaving the viewer no chance to ponder for a split second what might be going. Now that DAZN, the promoters, fighters, and everyone else are all under the Turki banner, the propaganda, spin, and marketing have spun out of control.
Errol scratches his three-year itch in Aussie comeback
Let’s hope this is the end for Errol Spence Jr, who was beaten in Sydney by Tim Tszyu. This was the official announcement of a truth we already knew: Spence was already retired.
Had he managed to roll back the years and beaten Tszyu, he would probably have looked for a crack at the middleweight titles. That felt unrealistic, but given that he had once returned from a near-fatal car crash, it was unwise to write Errol off completely.
Poor lifestyle habits, culminating in a moment of extreme danger, inevitably took their toll. Spence still fought. He was still competing. But he was not the same fighter who once dominated the PBC welterweights.
Sitting at ringside, supporting his former victim turned friend, Terence Crawford put the final nail in Spence's career in their 2023 unification showdown.
Three years later, Errol needed to see if he still has it. He doesn’t. Despite a spirited showing, especially in the early portion of the fight with Tszyu, this isn’t the same guy we saw in 2017/18. Both fighters got paid handsomely. Tim moves on. Errol moves out. Boxing moves on.
Other articles and content on the AJ-Prenga fallout 👇👇👇
Tyson Fury fight in jeopardy after Anthony Joshua looks completely shot
Late last night, as the dust settled in Saudi, I jumped on a call with Matty, Justin, Rob and Des to discuss AJ’s win over Prenga and a bit of chat about Fury, who beat Wach in Thailand.
Anthony Joshua tumbles past Kristian Prenga to keep Fury superfight alive
Anthony Joshua WON KO 2 Kristian Prenga
Image Credits: DAZN promotional material.
About Steve…
Current existence: Boxing writer, eLearning educator.
Previous lives: Online editor at Boxing News Magazine. Author (8 books), podcaster (500+ eps), scriptwriter for Motivedia channel, newspaper journalist, copywriter & educator.
