&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Anthony Joshua is BACK! Ex-heavyweight champion announces in-ring return since Lagos car crash")
Anthony Joshua is back! The former heavyweight champion has announced his in-ring return for the first time since suffering injuries in a car crash in Lagos last December. Joshua will face Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on July 25, according to the latest announcement. Meanwhile, following his last fight against YouTuber star Jake Paul, Anthony lost two of his close friends in the same crash in Nigeria a week later. Anthony beat Jake Paul in a fifth-round knockout.
Besides, the 36-year-old has been in talks to face Tyson Fury, his great Briton rival, later this year in a bout that many fans feel is at least five years late.
"It's no secret I've taken some time to consolidate and rebuild to be ready for stepping back into the ring, and this is the next step on that journey," Joshua said in announcing the July 25 bout in Riyadh.
However, shortly before this announcement, Saudi Arabia’s boxing powerbroker, Turki Alalshikh, revealed on the internet that Joshua’s bout with Fury had been agreed.
"To my friends in Great Britain -- it's happening. It's signed," said Alalshikh, with Ring Magazine reporting that the British rivals would collide in the fourth quarter of the year.
Joshua’s first fight since late 2025
First up for Joshua is 35-year-old Prenga, who has 20 wins -- all by knock-out -- in his 21 fights as a professional, although he has yet to face an opponent anywhere near the Briton's class.
Joshua is an Olympic champion from London 2012 and a two-time heavyweight champion in the professional ranks. He has 29 wins, 26 by KO, and four defeats, two by KO, in his career. He won the IBF heavyweight title in 2016 with a second-round knockout of Charles Martin and went on to add the WBA, WBO and IBO belts before losing them in a shock seventh-round stoppage defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019.
Joshua won back his belts in an immediate rematch six months later but lost them to former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk in 2021. He has had two more heavyweight title fights since then, losing a rematch to Usyk in 2022 and losing to fellow Briton Daniel Dubois by fifth-round KO for the IBF title in 2024.
Joshua then underwent elbow surgery and also had a shoulder injury.
His only fight since then was the mismatch against Paul.
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Meanwhile, Fury made his comeback after a 16-month-long retirement two weeks ago with a unanimous points victory over Russian Arslanbek Makhmudov. A couple of days later, Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn said that negotiations had begun to arrange a bout between the British heavyweights in November.
(With inputs from AFP)
