Eddie Hearn Thought Anthony Joshua’s Career Was Over

Joshua survived two first-round knockdowns, stopped Kristian Prenga in the second and left his promoter admitting he feared the comeback had ended before it began.

Anthony Joshua’s comeback almost ended in disaster before it produced one of the most dramatic knockouts of his career. Eddie Hearn revealed he believed Joshua’s return had ended after the second knockdown, only to watch him recover and stop Kristian Prenga one round later.

“When he got dropped, I was like, that’s career over,” Hearn said to Charlie Parsons at The Stomping Ground. “I’m kind of thinking to myself, ‘You know what? I’m proud of him for even getting back in the ring.’ If it ends like this, he should be really proud of the fact that he even returned to boxing. He had 24 breaks in his ribs or something. He couldn’t move, was in hospital for weeks and weeks. To even be in the ring was incredible.”

Hearn said Joshua’s recovery changed everything.

“He held on. He walked onto an uppercut and somehow found a way to recover,” Hearn said. “When he got back to the stool, I felt if he could just find his legs, this guy had thrown a lot of punches in the first round and was going to wear himself out. AJ has incredible knockout power. It doesn’t matter if he’s hurt. He has the ability to take you out with one punch.”

Joshua answered those concerns by stopping Prenga in the second round, but Hearn did not ignore the warning signs. He believes the performance should not overshadow the determination Joshua displayed by overcoming the knockdowns and finishing the fight.

Hearn said: “When he went down in the first round, for a moment I felt that perhaps we had returned to the ring too soon. However, boxing was part of his recovery journey. It gave him a purpose and focus that helped him overcome a period filled with grief and pain. When he was dropped twice in the opening round, it appeared that his career was on the line, but he gathered every ounce of strength he had, got back up, and continued fighting as he has always done.”