The two-time unified heavyweight champion overcame two knockdowns during a disastrous first round and violently knocked out Albanian underdog Kristian Prenga in the second round of their main event at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. What was designed as a tune-up fight DraftKings listed Joshua as a 25-1 favorite to win ended when Joshua’s crushing right hand rendered Prenga unable to continue 2:43 into the second round.

Joshua (30-4, 27 KOs) drilled Prenga (20-2, 20 KOs) with two right hands and a left before his final right hand dumped Prenga on the bottom rope. Prenga struggled to get up, which led referee Luis Pabon to halt their scheduled 12-rounder and secured his planned showdown with rival Tyson Fury.

“First of all, I wanna say thank you to everyone for coming out this evening. I appreciate it a lot,” Joshua told DAZN’s Ade Oladipo following his first fight against a legitimate heavyweight since Daniel Dubois knocked him out in the fifth round in September 2024. “I also wanna give a massive thank you to Kristian Prenga and his team for putting up a good fight. It means a lot to them and it means a lot to me, and that’s why you seen what you see in the ring.”

Joshua’s victory should solidify that he’ll finally fight Fury on an undetermined date in November. Fury (36-2-1, 25 KOs) stopped another huge underdog, Poland’s Mariusz Wach (39-14, 20 KOs), after the seventh round Friday night in Pattaya, Thailand, to secure his place in their long-anticipated bout between former champs.

“Oh, wait a minute,” Joshua added Saturday night. “Have we got Tyson Fury in the room, actually? Is he here or not?”

Fury didn’t attend Joshua’s victory over Prenga, which again prevented them from coming face to face in the ring now that there aren’t any additional obstacles to prevent their fight from happening next. Joshua sat in the front row, but he refused Fury’s request to step into the ring April 11 after Fury unanimously out-pointed Arslanbek Makhmudov at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

Joshua, 36, and Fury, 37, have signed contracts for a fight Netflix is expected to stream worldwide, but the date and site are not set. Speculation persists that they’ll fight somewhere in the United States, despite that Joshua-Fury would draw a much larger crowd at Wembley Stadium in London, where they’re much more popular and their fight would be considered a more historically significant event.

Joshua fought for the first time Saturday since he sustained injuries in a car accident in which two of his closest friends, Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele, died December 29 near Lagos, Nigeria. Joshua became emotional when he mentioned them after defeating Prenga and declined to discuss the torment he endured the past seven months when Oladipo asked about how difficult it was to fight again after losing them.

Ten days before the accident, the 6-foot-6, 251-pound Joshua viciously knocked out polarizing influencer Jake Paul in the sixth round of a lucrative mismatch December 19 at Kaseya Center in Miami.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist was expected to beat Prenga even easier and earlier, but the 6-5, 261-pound Prenga caught Joshua cold soon after the opening bell and almost destroyed the Fury fight.

A right uppercut stunningly sent Joshua to the canvas just 21 seconds into their bout. A shocked Joshua smiled as he reached his feet relatively quickly, but Prenga rocked Joshua again with a right hand and made Joshua stumble into the ropes with about 1:45 to go in the opening round.

Prenga shoved Joshua to the canvas with 1:07 to go in the first round because Joshua tried to hold him. A left uppercut by Prenga made Joshua use his right glove to keep from falling to the canvas again, which accounted for another knockdown with 40 seconds remaining in the opening round.

Joshua swung wildly toward the end of the first round, just to keep Prenga from landing another damaging punch prior to the bell sounding.

He was clearly committed by the time the second round started, though, to taking out an opponent who was dangerous, yet hadn’t been tested against a championship-caliber fighter during his 10-year professional career. Urged by the Ukrainian training team that worked with fellow former champ Oleksandr Usyk, who sat ringside to support Joshua, he regained control and put Prenga down and out.

“He’s a strong guy, you know?” Joshua said regarding Prenga. “He’s a strong guy and I think Eddie Hearn wants to sign him now. Eddie has already signed him, he said. But he’s gonna do well. He’s got a bright future. I’m a serious fighter. I know what I’m doing. I know my way around the ring.

“Maybe with a little bit more experience he’ll be up there with the rest of us. But he’s a serious fighter – strong, durable and come and gave me a good test. But this is what champions do. We rise, man. We get knocked down, we stand up and we keep going. That’s life.”