As fight fans may have heard by now, Anthony Joshua will go ahead with Saturday’s planned action, and he will now face veteran Finn Robert Helenius. AJ, who could have sat back and remained idle for the remainder of the year after Dillian Whyte royally messed things up by failing a drugs test ahead of their scheduled return fight, gets credit for wanting to fight and in so doing giving the fans something to watch on Saturday night.
And Helenius, already upset-minded and telling us so, could give Joshua a fight that proves worth watching. Now a standard DAZN offering and no longer a pay-per-view event, Saturday’s card at The O2 could wind up pulling in more viewers than the original £26.99 offering would have done.
39-year-old Helenius, 32-4(21) might not be as exciting a late sub for Joshua as Filip Hrgovic, who was in the running for Saturday but will face Demsey McKean as planned, but “The Nordic Nightmare” is a live opponent. Helenius was of course brutally and swiftly KO’d by Deontay Wilder in his last meaningful fight, this last October, but he has won two low-key fights since: one of them just three days ago. Helenius called Eddie Hearn when he heard about Joshua needing an opponent and fast, and Hearn picked him above other possible options, Hrgovic, Derek Chisora, and Gerald Washington.
“I have seen Helenius a few times on Fox and batter Adam Kownacki, and he lost to Deontay Wilder by a shot which would have knocked out a horse,” Hearn said on the Matchroom Boxing Youtube channel. “He came to fight (against Wilder) that’s why he got knocked out in that fight. He can punch, he’s six foot eight, and he won at the weekend. You are going to get criticized for whatever you do. You’ve got Filip Hrgovic, who has had a 12 week camp for a southpaw. His team are not necessarily going to jump in with Anthony Joshua. You got Demsey McKean, who is a southpaw. AJ is not going to fight someone who is a southpaw.”
Hearn added how he feels Helenius is “a tricky fight for AJ, a dangerous fight,” and it could prove to be so. We all saw what happened the last time AJ faced a late replacement opponent when his scheduled challenger flunked a drugs test – Joshua was upset by big underdog Andy Ruiz.
As we all know, anything can happen when two heavyweights get in there, and as Hearn says, Helenius can punch. Again, credit to Joshua for wanting to take another fight when he could have remained idle.
