Joshua undercard finally revealed

Anthony Joshua will return to the ring next week, and the undercard for his fight with Kristian Prenga has finally been announced.

The former two-time heavyweight will make a stunning comeback next weekend – seven months on from his near-death experience after being involved in a tragic car crash in Nigeria which resulted in the deaths of close friends Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami.

Joshua has not fought since his rather uninspiring sixth-round knockout victory over YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul last Christmas.

Providing he comes away unscathed against Prenga, it will finally set up a long-awaited showdown with Tyson Fury. The ‘Gypsy King’ is expected to take on Poland’s Mariusz Wach in Pattaya, Thailand, on July 24 – a day before Joshua’s fight. It was recently announced that the 12 fights which will take place on the Joshua vs Prenga card over in Jeddah after some slight delay.

In the co-main event, Britain’s Hamzah Sheeraz will defend his WBO super middleweight title for the first time against Simon Zachenhuber.

The German scrapper suffered a shock defeat to Pawel Augustynik on the Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov undercard back in April, but got back to winning ways two months later after forcing Armin Ajrulai to quit.

Much to the surprise of many, Augustynik is set to fight on the same billing as Zachenhuber against undefeated Danish brawler Jacob Bank.

Sheeraz won the title back in May after brutally stopping Alem Begic at the Pyramids of Giza. Elsewhere on the card, Josh Kelly will make the first defence of his IBF super welterweight title against unbeaten Irish challenger Caoimhin Agyarko. The Sunderland native won the belt back in January following a unanimous decision victory over Bakhram Murtazaliev in January.

Exciting Japanese featherweight prospect Reito Tsutsumi is set to return to Saudi Arabia following impressive stoppage victory in Riyadh back in December. He will take on fellow undefeated fighter Alvino Herrera. Olympic gold medallist Oleksandr Khyzhniak will make the walk to the professional ring for the second time in his career.

The Ukrainian will take on Frenchman Lenny Patrach. British flyweight Mikie Tallon will make his return to action next weekend – with the Scouse scrapper clashing with Venezuela’s Orlando Pino.

But all eyes will be on how Joshua fares on his return. The Brit revealed last month, he was even willing to return to a gruelling training camp much earlier, as he targets a statement victory in the Middle East before finally trading leather with Fury later this year.

“Really about two months ago. I was training but there’s levels to training. Two months ago I started really ramping things up, so it’s been good. Pre camp has been solid, obviously getting fitter, stronger so I can push myself more. I’m in a good place for today,” he said.

Mentally, Joshua was as ready as ever, but he just needed that extra time to get in peak physical condition. “Physically. Mentally, very strong. Mentally very strong. Physically just got to get yourself back to basically sparring,” he continued.

“No because it’s my purpose. Boxing is not only good for the competitive side of things it’s quite therapeutic. It gives us purpose. That’s what it does for me and I think this is a place where … I know it is the place where I am most comfortable. It gives me a purpose in my life.”