“I’ll be honest with you, the last couple of days I was thinking, ‘Why did we pick a guy with 20 knockouts?'” Hearn said to The Stomping Ground. “I’m not saying he’s an elite world-level fighter, but I still stand by it. If you’re going to beat Tyson Fury and fight for the world heavyweight title, you have to be beating people like that.”

Hearn said the first-round knockdowns briefly made him fear the worst before Joshua regrouped.

“I felt as long as AJ could get through the first round and get his legs back, the longer the fight went on, it was in his favor because Prenga’s never been in this type of a fight,” Hearn said. “AJ has incredible knockout power. It doesn’t matter if he’s hurt. He has the ability to take you out with one punch.”

Joshua delivered exactly that in the second round, stopping Prenga after turning the fight around. While the victory kept his comeback on course, Hearn’s comments showed there were second thoughts inside the Matchroom camp about matching Joshua with a heavyweight carrying a reputation for punching power, even if he lacked experience at the highest level.