By actively demanding that Prenga show him complete disrespect, Joshua is trying to fabricate a man-made sense of danger. He needs a reason to feel threatened. He’s practically begging Prenga to create an adversarial environment because that friction is the one thing that may spark his adrenaline and force him to take the threat seriously.
It’s a psychological tactic to mask the truth of the situation. If he can persuade himself that it is a bitter, personal grudge match moderately than a routine victory designed to steer into the signed Tyson Fury blockbuster, he can motivate himself to place within the grueling roadwork and stay locked in during camp.
If you find yourself a multi-time heavyweight champion, and also you look across the stage at someone who’s fundamentally a club fighter brought in to be a secure, restorative option after a large trauma, it’s incredibly difficult to seek out that real competitive fire.
The fact of this matchup is standard matchmaking practice to get a serious asset back within the win column, but Joshua cannot afford to treat it like a sparring session. If he goes in there flat and going through the motions, that is strictly when an enormous upset happens.
Prenga looked totally awestruck today, standing next to a man who has been selling out stadiums for a decade. It is difficult to play the role of a menacing, disrespectful villain when your eyes are as big as saucers just taking a look at the platform you will have been handed.
That’s the flaw in Joshua’s plan. You’ll be able to try to impress an opponent all you wish, but when the guy across the stage is fundamentally completely satisfied simply to get the chance and the payday, you can not force him to bring real, authentic malice.
Prenga’s manager can say all the correct promotional phrases about miscalculations and digging graves, but once the fighters look one another in the attention, the true dynamic comes out. Prenga looked like a man who won a lottery ticket, not a man ready to start out a war.
This leaves Joshua in a tricky spot for the following two months of camp. If Prenga doesn’t give him the hostile energy he’s in search of, Joshua goes to have to seek out one other strategy to motivate himself to get out of first gear on July 25.