Anthony Joshua was back in the boxing ring just months after his close friends Latif Ayodele, his strength coach, and Sina Ghami, his personal trainer were killed in a car crash involving the three of them.
And on Saturday night in Jeddah, Anthony Joshua survived a real scare as the British heavyweight was dropped twice and wrestled to the canvas in a chaotic opening round.
But Joshua dug deep, weathered the storm and, after finding another gear in the second, produced a devastating combination that flattened Albanian heavyweight Kristian Prenga, leaving the 35-year-old sprawled on his back and bringing a dramatic end to a fight that had threatened to derail his comeback before it had even begun.
His victory means he secured a mammoth payday for the £100m super-fight against age-old British rival Tyson Fury.
Although, when AJ’s hand was raised, the victory itself almost felt secondary.
For the first time since returning to the ring, the grief that he had worked so hard to suppress finally appeared.
Joshua admitted before the fight that he had spent months suppressing the pain of losing the two men, insisting he did not want to make their deaths about himself while their families mourned.
Yet, after completing the hardest comeback of his career, both physically and mentally, the emotion could no longer be contained.
Speaking in the ring after the Saudi scrap, Joshua said: ‘That was more than power – that was Sina and Latz and family. I can’t even talk about it.
‘It’s been tough…’
AJ then took a moment to compose himself before deciding to move things back to fighting talk.
He continued: ‘They were my brothers – I don’t want to talk about it. I learned I cannot be stopped or denied. I am coming, trust me.’
