Shane McGuigan has warned that Anthony Joshua’s planned warm-up fight in July could be a mistake ahead of a potential clash with Tyson Fury.
Joshua is scheduled to meet Kristian Prenga on July 25 as a tune-up after returning to the ring following a tragic car accident that killed two of his friends. The Prenga fight and the next training camp are intended to shake off ring rust and fine-tune preparations for a possible later-year showdown with Fury.
But McGuigan, one of the UK’s leading coaches, believes the extra fight may do more harm than good. He argues that training camps can be lonely and that Joshua needs a major challenge to rebuild his hunger and confidence. Describing Joshua as a “confidence fighter,” McGuigan says an immediate, high-stakes fight against Fury would better re-ignite his motivation than another routine bout.
McGuigan also reflected on the emotional toll of preparing without those who used to be in Joshua’s camp, calling the experience “horrible” and saying the accident would have been a huge blow. He warned that a straightforward win just to go through the motions won’t make Joshua a better fighter and could instead reveal “a lot of cracks in what’s really going on.”
On Fury, McGuigan suggested the champion might take an interim fight himself to unsettle opponents. He added that if he were in Joshua’s position he would take the big fight straight away rather than add warm-ups. He also recalled how efforts to stage an undisputed fight were derailed in 2021 when Joshua lost to Oleksandr Usyk, stressing the need not to risk missing another opportunity.
McGuigan dismissed pre-fight posturing over ring walks, A-side/B-side status and similar disputes as ego-driven distractions, insisting what counts is the “36 minutes” inside the ropes.
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