Last Saturday, former heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua came within touching distance of a stunning defeat. After being knocked down twice by Albania’s Kristian Prenga in the opening round, Joshua turned the fight around in the second and scored a knockout victory. Prenga’s dramatic change in approach, as he appeared hesitant and overly cautious in the second round, led many fans to put forward conspiracy theories about the circumstances of the fight, prompting Prenga’s manager, Keith Sullivan, to address the speculation.
Sullivan explained that the Albanian boxer fell ill during training camp and was bedridden for eight days with just three weeks remaining before the fight. According to him, that setback played a crucial role in what unfolded at the Jeddah Superdome. Below are the statements the American manager gave to TalkSport:
There were two conspiracies. One was that Turki [Alalshikh] had come over to our corner. Turki was not even in Jeddah, so that never happened. That’s gone, throw it away.
The other conspiracy was that somebody from Sela or Matchroom had come and whispered in our corner. Look at the footage, that never happened.
In the first round, Kristian simply gassed himself out. The instructions in the corner for the second round were: ‘Continue what you’re doing, keep the pressure on, keep pumping the jab and when you have the opportunities, take him.’
Kristian stood up off the stool to start the second round and, when the bell rang, he told me he felt like he was back in that hospital bed where he had spent eight days [before the fight], gasping for air with no energy.
He was stunned by what happened, in an instant. He told me it all came flooding back to him: the lack of training, the cardio work he hadn’t been able to do during the three weeks leading up to the fight. It all hit him right there and then.
So, in his own mind, he changed the game plan from what we had instructed him to do. He said to himself, ‘I’ve got AJ’s number, I’ve knocked him down three times.’ I don’t care what anybody says—it was three knockdowns. Those ropes absolutely held him up between the two official knockdowns.
At that point Kristian thought, ‘I’ve figured him out. I can put him down whenever I want. Let me preserve some energy, stay at range and back up a little.’ That’s where AJ’s talent and skillset came into play. That tiny crack in the door was all Joshua needed to kick it wide open and completely take over the fight.
That’s what happened. Kristian told me that once AJ started working behind the jab and he began feeling Joshua’s power, it became difficult to implement the game plan he had devised for himself. And then we all saw what happened.
I’m not making excuses. I think it was the most exciting five-and-a-half minutes of boxing I’ve witnessed in a very long time. I think Eddie Hearn picked up quite a few grey hairs sitting ringside, and I imagine the people at Matchroom are probably still suffering from indigestion to this day. But that’s what happened. Kristian was still feeling the effects of an inadequate training camp and the illness. He believed he could finish AJ at any moment.
He took his foot off the gas and gave Joshua that opening. And AJ simply did what highly talented, highly skilled and vastly experienced fighters do.