Anthony Joshua hits canvas twice, rallies for Round 2 knockout

· Yahoo Sports

Anthony Joshua is still on track to clash with Tyson Fury, but those plans were nearly derailed.

The former heavyweight champ Joshua (29-4) returned to the boxing ring for a tune-up fight against Kristian Prenga at Jeddah Superdome in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the expectation that he would get the job done and set up a massive fight against Fury. Joshua did get a knockout, but he was also nearly stopped in the first round.

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Prenga (20-2) showed up with intentions of pulling off a massive upset as a +900 underdog. The 35-year-old Albanian dropped Joshua twice in the first round, stunning onlookers. Joshua seemed calm after both moments, though, as if it were a mild inconvenience rather than a threat of the fight getting out of his control.

Sure enough, in Round 2, Joshua flipped the script.

It was a 1-2 combination, followed by a three-punch set ending with a hard right hand that sent Prenga crashing to the canvas, leaving his body draped over the bottom rope. Joshua unleashed a huge smile as he strolled to the opposite corner, knowing the shot he landed ended the fight. The official time of the stoppage was 2:43.

During his post-fight interview, Joshua, 36, turned his attention to "more important matters" in Fury. He jokingly attempted to re-create Mike Tyson's infamous post-fight rant before giving Fury, Eddie Hearn and Turki Alalshikh genuine praise for putting everything together.

The expectation is that Joshua and Fury will meet in November, with details still yet to be ironed out.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Anthony Joshua hits canvas twice, rallies for Round 2 knockout

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