Two-time world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua overcame two early knockdowns Sunday to stop Kristian Prenga in the second round, setting up a potential blockbuster all-British clash with Tyson Fury.
The fight at the Jeddah Superdome was Joshua's first since he was involved in a car crash in Nigeria in December that killed two of his close friends, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele.
The 36-year-old choked up when asked in the ring about his friends and the emotions of the past seven months, but said his second-round revival was down to more than pure punching power.
"That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina. That was family," he said.
The devastating accident occurred little more than a week after Joshua demolished YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a controversial Netflix-backed bout in December.
Joshua's last prior competitive appearance in the ring was his fifth-round knockout loss to IBF world champion Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in September 2024.
He improved to 30-4, with 27 wins by knockout, but not without drama.
Albania's Prenga, a knockout artist who had 20 wins inside the distance in 21 prior fights, sent Joshua to the canvas with a right uppercut just 20 seconds into the bout.
He had Joshua on the ropes again, his legs shaky, before sending him down a second time late in the first round.
But Joshua steadied in the second, backing Prenga into the corner behind his jab, shrugging off more heavy blows from the Albanian before inflicting damage of his own with his left hand.
A brutal combination capped by a big right finally sent Prenga crashing through the ropes to end it at 2:43 of the second round.
Joshua and Fury now appear set for their "Battle of Britain" in November, at a venue still to be announced.
Fury, like Joshua, a former two-time heavyweight world champion, did his part to make the long-anticipated fight happen, stopping Mariusz Wach in a low-key bout in Pattaya, Thailand, on Friday.
Fury, 37, outclassed Wach in the Thai resort city, chipping away relentlessly at the 46-year-old until he was pulled out by his corner in the seventh round.
It was Fury's second win in as many contests this year in his return from a 16-month layoff.
Fury wasn't ringside in Jeddah as many had anticipated, but Joshua had a message for him even so.
"I'm gonna rip his heart out! I'm the meanest, most vicious champion that has ever been. Nobody can stop me," he said.
"All jokes aside, there's two sides of this thing," Joshua added. "One is fire. You have to have that vim, that (roar). But also, there's respect.
"I respect everything he has done and everything that he has achieved."
"But as a fighting person and someone who has been calling for this fight for a long time, we're here now," he added.
Promoter Eddie Hearn, also speaking inside the ring in the wake of the bout streamed on DAZN, said the contract to fight Fury was signed.
"Everything's done," Hearn said. "But to be honest with you, tonight is all about the strength that (Joshua) showed to even be here tonight, and the strength that he had to show in that fight."
Hearn said that as the first round unfolded, he feared Joshua had come back too soon after the traumatic loss of his friends.
But a beaming Joshua was bullish on the future.
"I can't be stopped," he said. "I'm not going to be stopped. I'm not going to be denied."
