Anthony Joshua’s fight against Kristian Prenga has undergone a venue change, ahead of the heavyweight duel on 25 July.
This summer, “AJ” will box relative unknown Prenga in a warm-up bout for a long-awaited clash with Tyson Fury. Joshua, 36, and Fury, 37, have signed to fight each other later this year, potentially at Wembley Stadium in October or November.
First, though, Joshua must beat Albania’s Prenga, while his fellow Briton Fury is eyeing his own warm-up fight in August, expressing a desire for that bout to be in Dublin.
Either way, Joshua’s own upcoming contest has undergone a venue change.
The fight was originally announced to be taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but Monday’s press conference brought the news that it will instead be held at the Jeddah Superdome. Jeddah is also a Saudi city, approximately 950km away from Riyadh.
No reason was given for the change, but Joshua vs Prenga was due to be loosely tied to the ESports World Cup, which was recently moved from Riyadh to Paris, France. That move was made due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Joshua, a former world heavyweight champion like Fury, has boxed in both Jeddah and Riyadh before. His rematch loss to Oleksandr Usyk in 2022 took place in Jeddah, while his victories over Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou played out in Riyadh in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
AJ also beat Andy Ruiz Jr in a rematch in Diriyah, elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, in 2019.
Joshua will carry a 29-4 (26 KOs) record into his fight with Prenga, 35, who holds a 20-1 (20 KOs) record.
Joshua last fought in December, stopping YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in six rounds. Ten days later, AJ survived a car crash in Nigeria, an accident that claimed the lives of his teammates Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele.
