I didn’t come away from Anthony Joshua’s victory over Kristian Prenga thinking there was a problem.
Like most people, I watched Joshua climb off the canvas after two first-round knockdowns before producing the kind of spectacular knockout that has become his trademark. My first reaction was simple: whatever questions surrounded him beforehand, his power was clearly still among the best in the heavyweight division.
It wasn’t until I watched the fight back that something else caught my attention.
Neither punch that sent Joshua to the canvas looked particularly devastating.
That immediately took my mind back to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019. Then to Daniel Dubois last year. Three different fights, years apart, yet a similar question kept coming back into my mind.
Last week, I argued that Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury no longer feels like the fight it once promised to be.
After re-watching Joshua’s latest victory, however, I found myself asking a completely different question. Not whether he should fight Tyson Fury, but whether he has started to lose the one thing every boxer fears most.
His punch resistance.
Because while power often remains until the very end, a fighter’s ability to absorb punishment is usually the first great attribute to disappear.
Why Punch Resistance Declines Before Power
One of boxing’s cruelest realities is that fighters don’t all age in the same way.
Speed begins to fade.
Reflexes slow.
Recovery takes longer.
Yet many fighters continue to carry genuine knockout power long after those physical advantages have started to disappear.
Punch resistance is different.
Nobody can say with absolute certainty why some fighters become easier to hurt as their careers progress, but years of hard sparring, championship fights and repeated blows to the head inevitably take their toll. Sports science continues to study exactly how repeated impacts affect the brain, but boxing history repeatedly shows the same pattern.
Once a fighter’s chin begins to decline, it almost never improves.
You can sharpen your technique.
You can become fitter.
You can tighten your defence.
You cannot train yourself to absorb punches the way you once did.
Anthony Joshua’s Power Has Never Been the Issue
If Joshua proved anything against Kristian Prenga, it was that he remains one of the hardest punchers in world boxing.
After twice climbing off the canvas, he stayed composed, waited for his opportunity and landed one devastating right hand that ended the fight instantly.
That wasn’t luck.
That was elite punching power.
It also demonstrated something boxing fans have seen countless times before.
Power is often the last attribute a fighter loses.
Even when movement declines and reactions slow, true knockout power can remain for years.
Joshua reminded everyone of that in spectacular fashion.
The concern isn’t what happened at the end of the fight.
It’s what happened before it.
A Pattern Is Beginning to Emerge
One fight proves very little.
Three similar incidents spread across several years become much harder to dismiss.
Andy Ruiz Jr. repeatedly hurt Joshua during one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight history.
Daniel Dubois dropped and eventually stopped him after finding success with clean, accurate punches.
Now Kristian Prenga has become the latest man to send Joshua to the canvas before being knocked out himself.
That doesn’t automatically mean Joshua’s punch resistance has disappeared.
Balance plays a role.
Timing matters.
Sometimes a fighter simply gets caught cold.
But when similar situations keep occurring, it becomes impossible not to ask whether they are connected.
Watching the Prenga fight for a second time was what made that possibility stand out to me.
Boxing Has Seen This Before
Joshua certainly wouldn’t be the first elite fighter to experience this.
Amir Khan remained exceptionally fast throughout much of his career, but each passing year seemed to leave him increasingly vulnerable whenever he was caught clean.
Kell Brook was still technically brilliant after facing Gennadiy Golovkin and Errol Spence Jr., yet he never quite looked capable of taking punches the way he once had.
George Groves rebuilt his career impressively after early defeats before appearing noticeably easier to hurt later in his championship run.
Perhaps the most famous example is Roy Jones Jr.
At his peak, Jones possessed athletic ability few fighters in history could match. Once those physical gifts began to fade, punches that previously seemed harmless suddenly had devastating consequences.
Then there is Joe Joyce, whose legendary durability once looked almost impossible to break before recent defeats raised serious questions about whether even his extraordinary chin had finally begun to deteriorate.
Every fighter is different.
The pattern, however, remains remarkably consistent.
Heavyweights Can Hide the Problem Better Than Anyone
Heavyweight boxing is unique.
One punch can erase fifteen minutes of mistakes.
Joshua proved exactly that against Prenga.
For much of the opening round, people were beginning to question what they were watching.
Seconds later, one perfectly timed right hand completely changed the narrative.
That’s why punch resistance can be so difficult to judge in the heavyweight division.
A heavyweight can still become world champion if he retains devastating power.
But eventually every elite opponent lands clean as well.
When that happens, the ability to absorb punishment becomes just as important as the ability to dish it out.
This Isn’t a Retirement Article
Some readers will inevitably assume this is another article calling for Anthony Joshua to retire.
It isn’t.
Joshua remains one of boxing’s biggest attractions.
He still possesses fight-ending power.
He still has the experience to trouble almost anyone.
But boxing has always been brutally honest.
It doesn’t care how famous you are or how much you’ve achieved.
When a fighter begins losing punch resistance, there is very little anyone can do to stop that process.
Whether Joshua has reached that stage is impossible to say with certainty.
What we can say is that the conversation no longer feels unreasonable.
The Next Fight May Tell Us Everything
The biggest test of any theory in boxing is whether it repeats itself.
If Joshua’s next opponent lands clean and he shrugs the shots off, much of this discussion will quieten down.
If he is hurt again by punches that don’t appear especially destructive, the questions will only grow louder.
That’s why his next fight suddenly feels far more significant than simply deciding whether he deserves another world title opportunity.
It could tell us whether one of heavyweight boxing’s greatest punchers is beginning to lose the one attribute every fighter hopes never abandons them.
Final Thoughts
Anthony Joshua answered one question emphatically against Kristian Prenga.
His power is still there.
But after watching the fight again, I found myself paying far more attention to the two knockdowns than the spectacular finish.
Power can carry a fighter a very long way.
Punch resistance rarely comes back once it starts to fade.
I’m not convinced we’ve reached that point with Joshua.
I’m equally not convinced the warning signs should simply be ignored.
Sometimes the biggest questions in boxing don’t come from the knockout everyone is talking about.
They come from the moments people almost forget once the knockout arrives.
Join the Conversation
What did you make of Anthony Joshua’s performance against Kristian Prenga?
Do you think the two knockdowns were simply isolated moments, or do you believe they point to a gradual decline in his punch resistance?
Share your thoughts in the comments below and join the debate with boxing fans from around the world.
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