Hearn said the confidence behind the scenes has been far more aggressive than the respectful tone Prenga’s side has shown publicly.
“They’ve always said to me, cancel the Fury fight. Cancel the Fury fight. And I said to them, they’re quite respectful people. They come and say, ‘We come with nothing but respect.’ I said, ‘No, no, don’t come with respect. Come with beef.’ If you believe this, tell us. Don’t get up there at the press and go, ‘Oh, I really respect what AJ’s achieved.’ Tell us, cancel the Tyson Fury fight because I’m going to knock you out and spoil the biggest fight in British boxing history.”
Joshua returns on July 25 at the Jeddah Superdome after a lengthy layoff that followed injury and a car accident. A fight with Fury is expected later this year if both men handle their business first.
Prenga has never fought anyone close to Joshua’s level, but Joshua enters the bout with more questions than answers. He is returning from a serious car crash and has not faced a top heavyweight since his knockout loss to Daniel Dubois in 2024.
Hearn suggested Prenga’s camp genuinely believes Joshua is vulnerable heading into his comeback.
“A lot of people look at the fight with AJ, and they get this fake belief. I believe he thinks he can win, but they get this in their head that AJ’s not the fighter he was, especially coming off the layoff, coming off the injury, and the crash. These guys truly believe they can come in.”
The Matchroom chairman also revealed the level of intensity he is seeing from Joshua ahead of the fight, insisting there is no danger of his fighter overlooking Prenga because of the attention surrounding Fury.
“AJ’s going into this fight with the mentality to rip him to shreds, to absolutely punish and pulverize him to a pulp on July 25th. There is no friendly friendly. I’ve never seen AJ with this kind of aggression going into a fight.”
The Fury fight remains the major attraction on the heavyweight calendar, but Prenga’s team is openly talking as though it will never happen.
Prenga’s camp may be badly overestimating its chances. What stands out is that they feel comfortable saying the Fury fight might never happen. A few years ago, nobody would have dared.
