‘Motivated’ Anthony Joshua ready to fight on for three more years – Barry Hearn

By George Sessions, Press Association

Anthony Joshua has been backed to fight for another three years ahead of his return to the ring against Albanian heavyweight Kristian Prenga in Jeddah on Saturday.

Joshua (29-4, 26KOs) will face little-known Prenga (20-1, 20KOs) in Saudi Arabia in a warm-up bout before an eagerly anticipated all-British affair with long-standing rival Tyson Fury takes place later in 2026.

This fight with Prenga will be the 34th of Joshua’s career, but the first since he stopped YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami last December, which was followed days later by a tragic car crash in Nigeria that killed close friends Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele and Sina Ghami.

Matchroom Sport founder Barry Hearn, the father of Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn, told Sky Sports: “He is in an amazing place at the moment. Obviously I’ve seen him since 2012, we got very close and he’s like a member of our family really. I don’t think I’ve seen him so motivated.

“Some of that has been fuelled by that tragic accident, but he’s now talking about the next three years in the ring. I mean, it was a year ago we were talking about potentially two fights and then go off to a happy retirement.

“He is very motivated, he feels good about himself but boxing is a funny sport. It takes one decent punch from a big lad to knock out anyone in the world, so you have got to be on your toes all the time, you can’t take anything for granted and when you get your chance, you have to take it.

“And AJ’s in the mood to cause an awful lot of pain on Saturday. I don’t think I’m seen him look better than this in the 14 years that I’ve known him.”

Joshua will fight one day before Fury takes on Mariusz Wach in Pattaya in Thailand.