One of the sparring partners of Kristian Prenga is picking the upset over Anthony Joshua on Saturday in Saudi Arabia.
Lakeland, Florida’s Brandon Moore, whose lone loss in 20 professional bouts came to Richard Torrez in 2024, has been putting the Albanian underdog through his paces ahead of the potentially life-changing affair with the heavily favored Joshua.
Joshua, 29-4 (26 KOs), has fought and won at a level so beyond Prenga’s that the notion of the Englishman losing is almost preposterous.
But he’s lost before, of course. The first time came in June 2019 against Andy Ruiz Jnr in New York.
It was one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight history and was triggered by Joshua growing careless, and then getting caught, after dropping Ruiz in the third round.
The end came in the seventh.
Joshua is now 36 years old and looking to prove he still belongs after he survived a car crash that killed two of his closest friends in December. Victory over Prenga – priced at 20-to-1 by some bookmakers – is expected to lead to a November showdown with Tyson Fury.
But 35-year-old Prenga, 20-1 (20 KOs), should not be written off, says Moore.
“[Prenga] looks really, really, really good in sparring right now. It’s going to be a pretty entertaining fight,” he told Sky Sports.
“I think that he has a pretty good shot of beating him, and I think he’s bigger than Joshua. Joshua just has a muscular physique, but Prenga’s a bigger man.”
Joshua is listed as 6ft 6ins, one inch taller than his opponent. Prenga, however, tends to weigh around 265lbs which is heavier than Joshua’s favored fighting weight.
“It’s going to be a tough fight, but I think he can catch [Joshua] the same way Andy Ruiz did,” Moore continued.
“This is AJ’s first fight back. AJ’s had a lot of stuff going on in his life – nothing but respect to AJ, but when you’re getting back into the ring, you haven’t fought in a while, that ring rust is real.
“I told [Prenga] that he has the opportunity of a lifetime. He has the opportunity that I would wish for…
“Everything has to be aligned. He has to do everything perfectly.”
