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Kristian Prenga stands between Anthony Joshua and a potential blockbuster clash with Tyson Fury.
Though yet to be officially agreed, the lucrative and long-awaited all-British heavyweight super-fight remains on track for late 2026 after Fury’s dominant stoppage of Mariusz Wach in Thailand on Friday.
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Veteran gatekeeper Wach retired on his stool before the eighth round of a non-televised contest that took place in front of only 1,500 fans in Pattaya, having been overwhelmed as Fury stepped up a notch after previously ending his latest 15-month retirement from boxing with a comfortable decision win over Russia’s Arslanbek Makhmudov at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April.
Now attentions swiftly turn to Fury’s arch-rival Joshua, who 24 hours later makes his own comeback against the little-known Prenga at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia in a fight that was originally scheduled to take place in Riyadh alongside the Esports World Cup.
Joshua was last in action in December, when he knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in the sixth round of their high-profile mismatch in Miami.
His last proper competitive outing was a brutal fifth-round knockout defeat by British rival Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium back in September 2024, when he unsuccessfully challenged again for a third stint as world heavyweight champion.
More poignantly, the meeting with Prenga is Joshua’s first fight since he suffered minor injuries as a passenger in a serious car crash in Nigeria later in December that claimed the lives of two of his close friends and long-time team members in Sina Ghami and Latif "Latz" Ayodele.
Big ambitions: Kristian Prenga believes he can cause a huge upset against Anthony JoshuaGettySo who exactly is Kristian Prenga? Standard Sport provides the lowdown on the man looking to stun Joshua and spoil his plans of finally facing Fury this year.
Who is Kristian Prenga?
Even the most knowledgeable boxing aficionados were left needing to quickly scramble to research Prenga after he was first confirmed as a shock next opponent for Joshua back in April.
Born in January 1991, the 35-year-old - nicknamed ‘The Eagle’ - hails from the small village of Orosh in Mirdite, Northern Albania, but has fought out of Edgewater, New Jersey for several years now.
He works with trainer Muhammad Abdul Salaam in Lyndhurst.
Prenga, who stands at 6ft 5ins, was previously based in Canada, frequently fighting in Ontario.
A former kickboxer in his youth, he turned professional as a boxer in 2016 at the age of 25, winning all of his first four fights via stoppage before suffering his one and only loss to date in February 2017 - outpointed by Dutch heavyweight Giovanni Auriemma in a rematch.
Prenga’s 21-fight career has seen him compete all over the world, from Germany to the Netherlands, Canada, the USA and even Colombia.
He has won all 16 of his bouts since that sole defeat by Auriemma, with all of those victories coming either by knockout or technical knockout.
The comeback: Joshua is an overwhelming favourite to defeat Prenga in JeddahGettyPrenga, managed by Kevin Sullivan, is a stoppage specialist who has only gone past the second round once in his last 11 fights dating back to 2021 - a fifth-round win over Joey Dawejko in Newark in October 2024.
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All of his last three bouts have been won in the first round, against Joe Jones, Brandon Carmack and Willie Jake Jr. Prenga has never won a fight on points - all 20 of his pro victories to date have been inside the distance. The only time he was taken all the way, he lost.
Despite that impressive record on paper, Prenga has never really fought anyone with any sort of status in boxing’s glamour division and faces an enormous step up in quality against former two-time world heavyweight champion Joshua, who is the overwhelming favourite to win well on Saturday and tee up the Fury super-fight in the process.
However, Prenga - who weighed in on Friday 10.4lbs heavier than the slightly taller Joshua at 261.4lbs - has his eyes set on his own possible bout with Fury as he aims to produce one of the biggest upsets the sport has seen in recent years in Jeddah.
“He [Joshua] made a big mistake picking me,” Prenga recently told The Ring. “After I stop Joshua, maybe I can replace him as the Fury opponent.
“This is going to change my life when I shock the world.”