Anthony Joshua will fight Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia tonight, in a warm-up for his long-awaited clash with Tyson Fury.
Heavyweight star Joshua takes on Albanian unknown Prenga at Jeddah Superdome, one day after Fury’s bizarre, non-televised warm-up against Mariusz Wach in Thailand – which the “Gypsy King” won via seventh-round TKO.
Joshua, 36, last fought in December, stopping YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in six rounds, 10 days before surviving a fatal car crash in Nigeria, which claimed the lives of two of his teammates.
Should Joshua win here, he will share a ring with fellow Briton Fury later this year, potentially at Wembley Stadium in November – provided the ring walks begin at 2am GMT, according to Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh.
Follow live updates and results from Joshua vs Prenga, below.
Final prelim bout stopped early
We're into the second round of eight between Oleksandr Khzyniak and Lenny Patrach. Ukranian Khzyniak has caught the eye with a high volume of his punches, and his latest hook has his French rival on the canvas.
Patrach is back to his feet but has work to do - too much, as he is knocked down moments later. The fight is called off - light heavyweight Khzyniak records the second professional win of his career, in front of compatriot Oleksandr Usyk.
The world titles up for grabs this evening
Unfortunately for AJ, there are no world titles on the line during the headlining bout against Kristian Prenga.
However, we will see two world championship fights as part of the chief support acts on the under card.
The penultimate fight of the evening sees Hamzah Sheeraz (23-0-1, 19 KOs) make the first defence of his WBO super middleweight belt against German challenger Simon Zachenhuber (28-1, 19 KOs). Zachenhuber’s latest fight - a fifth-round stoppage of Armin Ajrulai - came less than 30 days ago.
Preliminary results so far
We’ve rattled through the early prelims on a packed card. Ziyad Almaayouf recovered from a mid-fight knockdown to defeat Frank Lucian Mango on points, with some slightly wide scorecards raising eyebrows.
The results of the card so far are as follows:
Super lightweight - Mohamed Mabrouk Yehya UD vs Bryan Zapata
Super middleweight - Omar Hikal UD vs Brian Castellano
Super featherweight - Sultan Almohammed TKO 3rd round vs Efren Besalduch
Lightweight - Mohammed Alakel TKO 4th round vs Lydon Chircop
Welterweight - Ziyad Almaayouf UD vs Frank Lucian Mango
Who is Kristian Prenga?
We’ve known Anthony Joshua’s next opponent for a few months, but Kristian Prenga remains a relative unknown in the heavyweight division.
The 35-year-old boasts a record of 20 wins and one loss in 21 professional fights. Remarkably, all 20 of those wins came by way of knockout - either straight KO or TKO victories.
Combat sports editor Alex Pattle has the lowdown.
IN PICTURES: Joshua v Prenga weigh-in
Friday’s weigh-in went off smoothly enough and AJ looks in good shape for his comeback fight this evening
Joshua v Prenga
Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Anthony Joshua’s fight with Kristian Prenga this evening.
After years of waiting, we are finally on the brink of the biggest British heavyweight fight of all time - Joshua v Tyson Fury, pencilled in for later this year.
This evening is the final (in-ring) hurdle. AJ can’t afford a slip-up against Albanian unknown Prenga but if he does the business in this warm-up fight, as expected, then the Fury showdown awaits.
Stick with us for full live coverage.