Anthony Joshua will head into his comeback bout carrying more weight than he did for his last outing after tipping the scales at 251lb ahead of Saturday night’s clash with Kristian Prenga in Jeddah.
The two-time heavyweight world champion has added 7.6lb since stopping Jake Paul in December, when he weighed in at 243.4lb.
Prenga, meanwhile, came in even heavier at 261.4lb, giving the unbeaten Albanian a weight advantage of 10.4lb over Joshua.
Despite the increase, Joshua is still short of the biggest weight of his professional career. That came in April 2023, when he weighed 255.4lb before outpointing Jermaine Franklin.
Joshua’s return comes less than a year after his career was thrown into uncertainty following the devastating car crash that claimed the lives of two of his closest friends and members of his inner circle.
AJ has since vowed to honour their memory by continuing the work they had planned together, supporting their loved ones financially and using his career to build the future they had all spoken about.
Anthony Joshua has weighted in at 251lbs ahead of Saturday night’s clash with Kristian Prenga
Now, in Jeddah, Joshua finally steps back between the ropes.
Standing opposite him is Albanian heavyweight Kristian Prenga, a dangerous puncher whose record suggests he should not be overlooked.
Twenty of Prenga’s victories have come inside the distance, with just one defeat on his professional record, but those numbers come with an important caveat.
The 35-year-old has never faced an opponent remotely comparable to Joshua. While Prenga possesses genuine knockout power, Saturday represents a monumental leap in class against a man who has shared the ring with the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, Daniel Dubois, Joseph Parker, Andy Ruiz Jr, Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin.
Joshua has refused to entertain talk of what comes next, insisting throughout fight week that his full attention remains on Prenga. Yet there is little escaping the significance of what victory would mean.
The contest has widely been viewed as the perfect opportunity for Joshua to build momentum before finally landing the long-awaited showdown with Tyson Fury, a fight British boxing fans have spent the best part of a decade demanding.
Fury did his part on Friday evening by returning to action with victory over Mariusz Wach in Pattaya, Thailand.
The expectation had been that Fury would fly directly from Thailand to Saudi Arabia and enter the ring after Joshua’s fight for the first official face-off between the pair, setting the stage for one of the richest fights in boxing history.
Joshua is seeking to avoid upset in his first fight since losing his two friends in a car crash
However, those plans now appear to have hit a stumbling block. Fury suggested prior to his victory that he may instead return home to spend time with his family, casting doubt over whether the highly anticipated confrontation in Jeddah will now take place.
For Joshua, though, those discussions remain irrelevant unless he gets through Saturday night safely.
He made that point emphatically during Thursday’s press conference, insisting there is no point talking about conquering the heavyweight division – or finally facing Fury – if he cannot first overcome the man standing across the ring from him.
Everything beyond Prenga can wait. ‘The comeback’ starts here.
