By Ian S Palmer
Heavyweight Adam Kownacki of Poland will be aiming to avenge his upset knockout loss to Robert Helenius of Sweden when the two meet in a 12-round rematch in Las Vegas this Saturday, Oct. 9th. The bout can be seen on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder pay-per-view event which will also be shown on BT Sport Box Office in the UK. The two met back in March in a slugfest with Helenius winning in the fourth round for the vacant WBA Gold World Heavyweight Title, whatever that is.
The 32-year-old Kownacki enters the contest with a 20-1 record with 15 Kos under his belt and his only pro loss coming to Helenius. He stands 6-feet-3-inches tall and owns a 76-inch reach. He turned pro back in 2009 and has boxed just 92 rounds since then. Kownacki is quite powerful with a current knockout ratio standing at an impressive 71.4 per cent but we now know he doesn’t posses a granite chin.
Kownacki fights out of Brooklyn, New York and was a pretty good Golden Gloves boxer back in his amateur days. He isn’t a muscular, ripped boxer, but his body shape wasn’t much of a problem until Helenius stopped him. His lack of experience against upper grade boxers was pretty evident back in March. However, he did beat former world champion Charles Martin by 10-round unanimous decision in 2018 and stopped fellow countryman Artur Szpilka in the fourth round in July, 2017.
He’s also beaten the likes of Gerald Washington, Joshua Tufte, Jesse Barboza and Danny Kelly. Kownacki simply lets his fists to the talking and isn’t interested in hearing what the judges have to say. So far his style has produced some pretty entertaining fights and he’s gone the distance in just five of his fights either. When be beat Chris Arreola by unanimous decision in 2019, Arreola threw a Compubox record 1,125 punches for a heavyweight while Kownacki threw 1,047.
The 37-year-old Helenius was born in Sweden and fights out of Finland. He enters the fight with a record of 30-3 with 19 Kos and is a former European Heavyweight champion. Helenius is a pretty good heavyweight but isn’t very well known outside of Europe. He’s owns a decent chin to go along with good power and can also put punches together with the best of them. He turned pro back in 2008 and has boxed 189 rounds since then.
Along with beating Kownacki, his biggest victories have been against Dereck Chisora by split decision in 2011, stopping Samuel Peter the same year and halting Sergei Liakhovich four months later and Lamon Brewster in 2010. His first loss was a sixth-round stoppage at the hands of Johan Duhaupas in April, 2016 and he dropped a 12-round decision to Dillian Whyte for the vacant WBC Silver Heavyweight Title in 2017. He was stopped in the eighth round by Gerald Washington in 2019.
Helenius is bigger than Kownacki as he stands just over 6-feet-6-inches tall with a 79-inch reach. This gives him a 3.5-inch height advantage as well as a three-inch edge in reach. Helenius stopped Erkan Teper in the eighth round in 2018 for the vacant IBF Inter-Continental Heavyweight Crown and captured the vacant WBC International Heavyweight Title in 2017 when he stopped Evgeny Orlov in the sixth round.
Since turning pro after a fine amateur career, Helenius has also won the IBF International, WBO Inter-Continental, WBA Inter-Continental and European belts. He’s fought some pretty good opposition over the years in Brewster, Liakhovich, Whyte, Washington, Duhaupas, Peter, and Chisora and also has wins over Michael Sprott and Sherman Williams. He definitely has enough power to do some damage as Kownacki can attest to and owns a current knockout ratio of 57.6 per cent.
Prediction…
When at his best, Helenius can be more than a handful for heavyweight even though he’s now 37 years old and has been stopped a couple of times. Kownacki had his moments in the first fight but he was surprised by his bigger opponent. This fight will likely end up being decided by power and chins once again. I think Kownacki took Helenius too lightly in the first meeting due to his advanced age and paid for it. He should be better prepared this time around and since a win would probably result in a trilogy I’m going with Kownacki. But I certainly wouldn’t bet the house on it.
