We’ve waited more than a decade for Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua, so what’s wrong with another few months?
Well, that at least appears to be the thinking behind the fighters and powers involved in curating what would be one of the biggest heavyweight fights the United Kingdom has ever seen.
This weekend, former heavyweight champions Fury (35-2-1, 24 KOs) and Joshua (29-4, 26 KOs) both take on tune-up fights within 24 hours of each other. Fury fights Mariusz Wach (39-13, 20 KOs) in Thailand on Friday, before Joshua fights Kristian Prenga (20-1, 20 KOs) in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Granted, you probably would’ve been gawked at with a screwed-up face if you’d predicted these two contests at the start of 2026, but politics, as always, remain rife in boxing, and these two stale hors d’oeuvres have been served up whether we like it or not.
So let’s accept this weekend for what it is, and try to work out if either Wach or Prenga have any business mixing it with Fury and Joshua at all.
And if they do, who will fare better?
Age
Mariusz Wach is 46 years old.
That should be all we need in this segment, but where’s the fun in that?
Poland’s Wach has been fighting professionally since 2005, and after 52 bouts and 340 rounds, “The Viking” clearly isn’t getting any younger or fresher.
In his 13th and most recent loss against Viktor Vykhryst in March, Wach looked like the man of advancing years that he is. He was slow and ponderous in the 10-round shutout, struggling to keep his bulky midriff of sagging skin inside his high-stretched shorts.
That was his seventh loss in his last 10 fights, with his only wins coming on home soil in low-grade Polish promotions.
Kristian Prenga is just 35, one year the junior of his opponent, Joshua. He doesn’t have the hardened experience across the globe that Wach has, but at least Prenga doesn’t have to fight a second opponent every time he gets into the ring: Father Time.
Prenga’s 21 bouts have only seen 53 rounds contested, so if you’re looking for the guy with the physical, athletic edge, then it’s Prenga all day long.
Winner: Kristian Prenga
Hunger
A win on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia could change the life and career of Kristian Prenga.
“I’ve watched him from [his] first fight, grown up with him, but everything happens sometimes,” Prenga said of Joshua at their June press conference.
“Everything happens sometimes,” is an awfully cryptic way of trying to tell your opponent you are going to beat him, so Prenga went a little more direct in his next sentence.
“I think now is my time and I need to show the world. I’m training more than ever, feeling great and ready, and I think I’m going to shock the world.”
This is Prenga’s chance of landing the golden ticket. Knock out Joshua, and opportunities will follow. Can we really say the same about Wach?
Fury vs. Wach isn’t even going to be streamed live on TV — footage is bizarrely being held back to use on Fury’s Netflix TV show, “At Home With The Furys” — so whose to say whether a big Polish upset would ever see the light of day …
“Wait, nobody thought to press record?!”
Prenga is the man with most to gain here. It’s impossible to quantify Wach’s hunger for a performance in Thailand, past receiving a few thousand Thai baht and a pat on the back.
Winner: Kristian Prenga
Durability
Mariusz Wach has lost 13 times and been stopped on five occasions, but I’d still take the Polish fighter’s durability and chin over Prenga’s.
This one may come back to bite me, but Wach has danced with the likes of former unified heavyweight king Wladimir Klitschko, Moses Itauma, Arslanbek Makhmudov, Dillian Whyte, Alexander Povetkin and Martin Bakole over his career.
Yes, he may well have lost every single one of these fights, but if he hadn’t learned a trick or two about defense and strengthening his whiskers, then I doubt he’d still be going.
Prenga’s solitary defeat came in 2017, in the Netherlands, against Giovanni Auriemma who now owns a record of 2-6-2 (0 KOs). (Not great.)
He wasn’t stopped by the Dutchman over their six-rounder, but it’s a useful indication of Prenga’s floor. Saturday will be Prenga’s first 12-round fight — I’d be amazed if he makes it through half of the scheduled 36 minutes against such a concussive puncher as Joshua.
Winner: Mariusz Wach
Power
Pardon the pun, but Wach could really, well, whack back in the day.
His seven-fight knockout streak between 2009-12 saw him run into the aforementioned unified heavyweight champion Klitschko — which really ages him! — losing a shutout to the Ukrainian for the WBA, WBO and IBF world titles.
But since that loss, Wach has stopped just five fighters in 14 years, journeying across Europe and North America to receive mostly losing paydays.
On the other side of the coin, Prenga’s 100% knockout ratio needs a BIG asterisk.
He has 20 of them, but go ahead and try to convince me that you’ve heard of more than a handful of the journeyman scalps he’s taken since 2016. I’ll be waiting.
That being said, Prenga still had to knock them over, and coming into a fight with a right hand that works isn’t the worst bit of armory.
His career has very much been cultured for a moment like this, so let’s not begrudge it. Prenga surely has his head on his pillow dreaming of repeating what Andy Ruiz Jr. managed to pull off in 2019.
Winner: Kristian Prenga
Pull
Mariusz Wach is a bigger name than Kristian Prenga, but not at age 46 in a fight behind closed doors for, what Fury promises this time, will have charitable implications.
There were definitely more Google searches for Prenga’s name rather than Wach’s in June, but Prenga’s record, age and the fact you can actually watch this fight on your televisions (!!!) means the Albanian has to be the bigger pull here.
I get it: giving the edge to either corner here is akin to two bald blokes fighting over a comb, but simply due to the fact that Joshua vs. Prenga is following the blueprint of an actual fight week, then Prenga gets his arm raised.
Winner: Kristian Prenga
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