Anthony Joshua bounces back from personal tragedy knocking his opponent out in the second round

FORMER world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has bounced back from his recent personal tragedy that saw him lose two of his close friends by winning his first comeback fight against Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia last night.

Last December, Joshua was involved in a ghastly car accident in Nigeria that claimed the lives of his friends Sina Ghami and Latif 'Latz' Ayodele. There were doubts about whether he would be able to ever get over the tragedy and return to the ring but yesterday he did and managed to beat his opponent within the second round at the bout in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua, 36, suffered two knockdowns in the first 20 seconds of the fight before recovering to dramatically stop Prenga in the second round. In the opening round, Joshua was sensationally rocked by a huge uppercut from underdog Prenga and then hit the canvas again later in the round in what was looking like being one of the biggest shock defeats in heavyweight history.

Had Joshua lost the bout, his long-awaited Tyson Fury fight would have been put in doubt but he managed to produce one of the greatest escapes of his career and bounce back. Joshua unleashed his right hand in the second round, with the final shot sending Prenga crashing down and forcing the referee to halt the contest.

Joshua said: "It's more than punch power. That was spirit, that was Latz, that was Sina, that was the families. It hurts to even talk about it. It has been tough. It's my brothers. I don't want to talk about it."

There had been speculation fellow Briton Fury might make a appearance despite insisting he would not attend. However,  the master of mind games stayed true to his word, with Fury nowhere to be seen barely 24 hours on from his own warm-up win over Mariusz Wach in Thailand.

Later on this year, Joshua and Fury are expected to clash in that would be an unofficial British heavyweight championship fight.  Contracts have been signed, but the venue and date for a fight more than a decade in the making are still unknown.