Coach Don Charles has given his thoughts on those questioning Anthony Joshua’s punch resistance following his fight last weekend.
Charles guided Daniel Dubois to victory over Joshua in 2024.
‘AJ’ returned to the ring for the first time since his win over Jake Paul in December and marked his comeback with a brutal knockout victory over Kristian Prenga.
He had to earn the win, though, after facing major adversity in the opening round.
The Albanian caught Joshua just 20 seconds into the contest and floored him with a sharp uppercut after the Brit left himself in a vulnerable position during one of the first exchanges of the fight.
Joshua got back to his feet but appeared visibly shaken. Prenga capitalised on the first knockdown by landing a brutal right hand, similar to the shot Dubois used to drop the two-time world champion in 2024.
After a difficult opening round, Joshua made it back to his corner before putting together a devastating combination to end the fight.
Joshua spoke to the media afterwards and reflected on being floored twice.
“That happened in the first 20 seconds of round one. I got back up, took a minute, steadied the ship and came back in round two.
“Boxing isn’t pretty. That is resistance. That is hard.
“For me, I showed you in that round that I was in there with someone who is tough and strong. He is definitely a strong guy.
“I came out on top.
“You need to be asking him about his punch resistance. Don’t be asking me about my punch resistance. I am sitting here victorious.”
Charles spoke to Seconds Out and offered a similar view to ‘AJ’.
“Basically, all that matters is, from my understanding and my experience over the years, that all you’ve got to do is win.
“Sometimes you win ugly, yeah? It’s a two-horse race. Someone is going to win and someone is going to lose.
“This is heavyweight boxing. This is what people pay for.
“Someone is most likely going to get knocked out. What we saw on Saturday was that ‘AJ’ got knocked down, showed character to get back up, wasted no time and executed the game plan to secure a knockout victory.”
Following the win over Prenga, ‘AJ’ is now likely to face Tyson Fury next after more than a decade of back-and-forth between the pair.
‘The Gypsy King’ also returned to the ring last week, recording a seventh-round victory over Mariusz Wach.
