Tyson Fury stopped Mariusz Wach in seven rounds in Thailand on Friday as he warmed up to face Anthony Joshua later this year.
The two great British heavyweights are finally due to meet one another in the ring in a fight which has been mooted for years, but both need to win warm-up fights before their super-bout can take place.
Joshua will face Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night, but is under rather more pressure to perform after Fury cruised to victory against the veteran Wach.
The Gypsy King chose to host the warm-up fight away from prying eyes at the inauspicious Max Muay Thai Stadium in Pattaya, Thailand, with a crowd of just 1,500 in attendance and no live broadcast provided.
And it was a routine outing for the 37-year-old, who dominated proceedings from the off against his veteran opponent. He appeared confident and assured as he took the fight to Wach from the first bell, landing tidy combinations and a number of accurate, bruising jabs.
He was clearly enjoying the occasion as sympathetic fans chanted his name, and he did what he could to egg them on.
The direction of play remained broadly unchanged throughout, though Wach, who seemed to be tiring as early as round two, did well to hang in until round seven, after which the fight was waved off by the referee.
It was a solid if not vintage performance from Fury, who, it must be remembered, was facing vastly inferior opposition.
He did what he needed to, though, and all eyes will now be trained on Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Joshua is going through his final preparations to see if he can keep up his end of the deal.
The Prenga fight will be the Briton’s first since he was involved in a deadly car accident in Lagos in December 2025. Two of his close friends and long-time team members, strength and conditioning coach Sina Ghami and personal trainer Latif "Latz" Ayodele, were killed in the smash as Joshua himself escaped with minor injuries.
Should he beat Prenga, it is not yet clear where his fight with Fury will take place.
Prenga, though, has made clear that he expects to fight Fury should he get the better of Joshua.
