Joshua explains mindset ahead of Fury fight

File photo: British-Nigerian heavyweight boxer, Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua says his scare against Kristian Prenga in July woke him up, and he will go for an early knockout against Tyson Fury when the two meet in Cardiff on December 11.

The British heavyweights will meet at the Principality Stadium in a bout streamed on Netflix as part of a Ring show. It is the culmination of a rivalry a decade in the making, although the fight nearly collapsed more than once during negotiations.

Joshua, who has a record of 30-4 with 27 knockouts, was floored twice in the first round by Prenga on July 25 in Saudi Arabia. Prenga dropped him with a right uppercut inside the first 20 seconds, and Joshua went down again near the end of the round.

He recovered to stop Prenga in the second with a combination capped by a right hand. It was his first fight since surviving a fatal car accident in December.

The night before, Fury, whose record is 36-2-1 with 25 knockouts, had stopped Mariusz Wach in Thailand.

Joshua told The Ring’s Mike Coppinger that the Prenga fight changed his thinking.

“The Prenga fight woke me up. It made me realise my motto that boxing is not a sport. Boxing is a fight; never lose sight of that,” he said.

“Strategy is cool, but let me tell you something. At that moment, you have to be ready for anything. And with what happened to me when I fought Prenga, it just switched me on to realise, if I can do what I do in round two in round one, I could have done it way earlier.”

He said he had gone into that fight trying to wear Prenga down.

“I was watching a lot of Terence Crawford and Shakur Stevenson, and I was really like, you have got to practise your defence. But in heavyweight boxing, your best defence is your offence.

“I cannot go in there thinking I am going to break this fighter down over the course of the rounds. I am going to take you out in round one if I can,” Joshua said.

Few would expect Joshua to survive a similar start against Fury, who operates at a different level to Prenga and would be unlikely to let him off the hook. The fight is for the vacant WBA “super” heavyweight title.