Helenius Steps In To Save The Day

There’s never a dull moment in boxing and if there were ever five days to optimise that, then it’s most certainly been the last 120 hours. 

When it was announced on Saturday morning that Anthony Joshua’s highly anticipated rematch with Dillian Whyte was off due to an adverse finding on one of the latter’s VADA drugs tests, Robert Helenius was preparing himself to face the undefeated Mika Mielonen just hours later in his first fight in Finland in nearly five years.

Little did he know at the time, a mere seven days later, he’ll be facing the former unified heavyweight champion of the world on away soil.

What has transcended over the past few days, no one could have predicted. However, we now find ourselves in the predicament where Joshua will face an opponent on Saturday night who has had just six days’ notice. 

Helenius isn’t just a bog-standard opponent, though. This is a fighter who has proved that he is someone who ought to be taken seriously having claimed wins over the likes of Adam Kownacki on two occasions, along with Derek Chisora.

I mean, can anyone really write off a 6’7 250lbs man mountain in 10oz gloves? It would be unfair to do so completely. 

Is Joshua levels above Helenius? Yes. That’s not really up for debate. Could you argue this is a mismatch on paper? Yes, you could make a fair argument for that but, ultimately, this is heavyweight boxing and we’ve seen time and time again that you cannot look past any man at this level. 

Boxing fans will be disappointed and rightly so. However, the organisers of the event have offered refunds to ticket holders through the point of purchase and the fight will now be part of the DAZN subscription package, rather than pay-per-view.

It would have been easy for Matchroom to scrap the card completely, leaving 16+ fighters without pay having grafted in camps for numerous weeks, while also leaving fans, who would have been forced to cancel hotels and transport, out of pocket.

It’s not the fight that boxing fans wanted but at the end of the day, it’s a fight and no matter who’s facing him on the other side of the ring, there’s always something a bit special when Anthony Joshua steps into the ring.

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