Duke McKenzie Tells Joshua to Retire Before Fury Fight After Prenga Scare

Anthony Joshua got the win over Kristian Prenga on Monday night, a second-round knockout that keeps him on track for a long-awaited grudge match with Tyson Fury. But the manner of it — two knockdowns in the opening round before AJ rallied — has former three-division world champion Duke McKenzie urging the 36-year-old to retire before he ever steps in with Fury.

Joshua, now 29-4 (26 KO), was supposed to breeze through Prenga and bank a statement finish. Instead he hit the canvas twice inside three minutes and came within a whisker of a career-ending upset. Credit where it's due: he steadied himself and closed the show in the second with a three-punch combination that left the Albanian flat out. The finishing power is clearly still there. The rest of the picture is what's got people worried.

McKenzie Doesn't Mince Words

Speaking to Seconds Out, McKenzie said watching the Prenga fight was painful and that nobody was calling for retirement after Joshua's previous outing because the warning signs weren't this obvious. He argued that whoever ends up in AJ's corner, the conversation shouldn't be about moving forward — it should be about going back and asking what went wrong.

McKenzie went further, suggesting that no trainer, not even a switch to Oleksandr Usyk's camp, can fix what he saw. The only people who could really get through to Joshua, in his view, are the ones closest to him — his mother, or promoter Eddie Hearn. His plea was blunt: love him enough to tell him to walk away now.

The Numbers and the Next Fight

The concern lands harder when you stack it against the opposition waiting. Fury, ranked #3 at heavyweight and carrying a 36-2-1 (25 KO) record, is a different order of problem than a late-notice Albanian. And for context on the top of the division, lineal champ Usyk sits unbeaten at 25-0 (16 KO) — the man who already beat Joshua twice.

None of this seems to be slowing the machine down. Despite McKenzie's warning, an announcement for Fury-Joshua appears close, with the event tipped for New York City this November. If it happens, AJ will be walking into the biggest fight of his life while the people who watched him get dropped twice by Prenga are still holding their breath.