By Ian S Palmer
The latest boxing farce has seen Dillian Whyte fail a drug test, which means his scheduled fight against former Heavyweight Titlist Anthony Joshua of Watford, England has been cancelled and he’s been replaced by Robert Helenius of Finland. The 12-rounder will go ahead at the O2 Arena in London on Saturday, August 12th and will be broadcast live in most nations on DAZN. Joshua last fought in April when he beat Jermaine Franklin by a 12-round unanimous decision. Helenius actually fought just last weekend as he stopped Miko Mielonen in the third round on August 5th. Before that he suffered a devastating first-round knockout loss to Deontay Wilder last October
The 33-year-old Joshua is a former 2012 Olympic gold medalist who won the IBF Title in his 16th pro bout by stopping Charles Martin in the second round in 2016. He enters the fight with a record of 25-3 with 22 Ko’s. He ended his first 14 pro bouts and 16 of his first 18 within the first three rounds and owns a current knockout ratio of 78.6 per cent. He’s gone the distance in four of his last five fights though and lost three of the past six.
Joshua stopped Wladimir Klitschko in the 11th round in 2017 to win the WBA title and vacant IBO Crown. He added the WBO Belt with a unanimous decision win over Joseph Parker the next year but lost them all in 2019 when Andy Ruiz stopped him in the seventh round in Joshua’s first fight outside of the UK. He beat Ruiz by unanimous decision in their rematch though six months later to regain the titles. Joshua defended them once by stopping Kubrat Pulev in the ninth round a year later and lost them again when he ran into Usyk in September, 2021 and lost the rematch 11 months later by unanimous and split decisions respectively.
Joshua has also beaten Carlos Takam, Alexander Povetkin, Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale, Dillian Whyte and Kevin Johnson along the way. His chin has always been a bit of a question mark and his power hasn’t been quite as evident lately. Klitschko had him down and apparently out in the sixth round in 2017, but Joshua came back and stopped him. However, he was dropped four times by Ruiz in their first fight and rocked a couple of times by Usyk. Joshua turned pro in 2013 and has 148 rounds under his belt since.
He’s a good-sized heavyweight by today’s standards as he stands 6-feet-6-inches tall with an 82-inch reach. Joshua is arguably a bit too muscle bound though, but possesses pretty good boxing skills even if he is a bit robotic. He has decent mobility and upper body movement as well as a stiff jab but usually tries to stay away from slugfests if possible these days while he attempts to box his opponents and use his size to advantage.
Joshua now tries to avoid going toe-to-toe and box, such as he did in the rematch with Ruiz, since he has the habit of losing his legs when getting nailed on the chin. Of course, he also has to stand his ground and fight back when tested though so this has proven to be a bit of a dilemma for him. He’ll try using his jab and nailing Helenius on his way in with something solid whenever he sees an opening but will definitely go after him if he feels he’s hurt.
The 39-year-old Helenius was born in Sweden and fights out of Finland. He enters the fight with a record of 32-4 with 21 Ko’s and is a former European Heavyweight champion. He’s a solid heavyweight who wasn’t very well known outside of Europe until his two recent stoppage wins over Adam Kownacki in America. However, the momentum he built with those two victories was suddenly derailed when Deontay Wilder halted him in just one round last year. He did bounce back with a win last weekend however.
Despite that devastating knockout defeat and being stopped in three of his four losses, Helenius actually has a pretty good chin to go along with decent power and can also put punches together with the best of them. He turned pro back in 2008 and has boxed 199 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.
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 and won the vacant WBA Cold Heavyweight Crown with his first victory over Kownacki.
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 then stopped in the eighth round by Gerald Washington in 2019. Helenius stands just over 6-feet-6-inches tall with a 79-inch reach so gives up three inches in reach to Joshua. He’s fought some pretty good opposition over the years and also has wins over Michael Sprott and Sherman Williams. He has enough power to do some damage as Helenius’ current knockout ratio sits at 58.3 per cent with his last five wins all coming by stoppage.
Prediction…
Joshua’s knockout loss to Ruiz wasn’t really a surprise since his chin has always been a bit of a question mark but he’s now fine tuned his other boxing skills because of it and sometimes employs a hit-and-run strategy. Helenius is a capable boxer with experience and power but in reality this is a fight nobody really wanted to see. In fact, the originally-schedule Joshua vs Whyte tilt wasn’t called for either. Helenius won’t outbox Joshua but he has a puncher’s chance of stopping him. It’s a longshot though. The most likely ending here will be a Joshua victory by way of stoppage.
