Anthony Joshua’s supposed ‘warm-up’ fight against Kristian Prenga almost cost him a long-awaited showdown with Tyson Fury, and former WBO cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson has offered his thoughts on ‘AJ’s current form.
Joshua was looking to convince the public that he was back to his ruthless best by disposing of the lesser-known Albanian with ease, proving that months of training with Oleksandr Usyk’s team had shaped a devastating knockout artist into a well-rounded machine.
Instead, that outing had the opposite effect, as Joshua looked vulnerable. Prenga twice floored him in the opening round, before ‘AJ’ rallied in the second to score a knockout of his own.
Speaking with Boxing King Media, Nelson questioned the mentality of ‘AJ’ throughout his career, believing that the two-time world champion has underachieved because of it.
“I think that AJ is an unbelievable talent that, in my book, has probably underachieved because I think that this kid could have been a reigning champion for quite a while, but it’s about the mentality and, unfortunately, it’s gone now.
“I don’t think that he is mentally strong enough. I don’t think that he digests situations like most of us. We all go on about Daniel Dubois, he obviously looks at things differently but look at AJ – AJ will be talking to you, shadowboxing, he is a big-ass grown man.”
Nelson then went on to suggest any idea of Joshua having an additional fight before heading into a scrap with ‘The Gypsy King’ is a bad idea.
“When your time is up, your time is up and I am telling you now that he has been through enough s**t in his life to get to this point here. When we saw that [Prenga] fight, and all of the backlash that has come out, people saying that it was a fix or that he is shot, we can call have opinions but now Anthony Joshua has to have a word with himself.”
“Prenga can punch, so you can’t dismiss that, but he shouldn’t be doing that to AJ. But, what you saw, he looked fragile. AJ cannot have another fight, if the fight with him and Fury is to go on – and neither can Fury.
“I’m quite sure that Eddie and all of the other promoters are saying, ‘you know what, we can’t risk it mate’, because now the proof is in the pudding.”
An official announcement on the Fury fight is yet to come, with ongoing discussions on the location holding things up behind the scenes. Hearn and Joshua want, as per their contract, the fight to take place in the UK. Sela and Netflix have instead targeted Madison Square Garden in New York, which means the Brits must negotiate new terms.
