Promoter Frank Warren says Deontay Wilder will return to the ring in October against Robert Helenius in a fight in the U.S.
Former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs) hasn’t fought since losing to Tyson Fury by an 11th-round knockout last year on October 9th in their trilogy clash in Paradise, Nevada.
The 36-year-old Wilder coming back to face the big punching Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs) could be asking for trouble because this is a formidable guy for him, especially with him coming off consecutive knockout defeats against Fury.
Wilder has been winless since his seventh-round knockout of Luis Ortiz in November 2019. The Alabama native’s power still seems the same, but his stamina has abandoned him since he bulked up from 219 to 238 lbs.
Wilder doesn’t seem to have figured out that he lacks the cardio to fight in the 230s. If the 6’7″ Deontay gasses out against the big 6’6″ Helenius, he will not last long because he’s a much bigger puncher than Fury.
Helenius doesn’t need to throw rabbit punches to the back of his opponent’s head to get them out of there. He’s got the power to take Wilder out with either hand, and he can do it cleanly and efficiently.
If Wilder’s poor stamina and chin holds up, he’ll likely knockout Helenius without any problems, but he’s looked bad in his recent fights against Tyson Fury.
Deontay made Fury look a lot better than he is because those were winnable fights for him if he didn’t gas out and if his punch resistance was better.
“Deontay is fighting in October; he’s coming back, and they’re talking about him fighting [Helenius], and that’ll be in the States,” said Frank Warren to talkSPORT Boxing about Deontay Wilder’s next fight.
“I’d love to do that fight, but he’s [Deontay] coming off a bad knockout. There’s no doubt about that was a bad knockout against Tyson Fury, who was a tough fight for him,” said Warren.
Wilder was a tough fight for Fury, given all the knockdowns and the fact that Tyson no longer wishes to fight. You can argue that Tyson won the battles, but Wilder won the war because The Gypsy King is turned off by the sport due to the punishment involved.
Helenius looked devastating in his last two fights, destroying Adam Kownacki by early knockouts. Helenius’s power in those fights was extraordinary, and he had too much for the Polish heavyweight Kownacki to live with him inside the ring.
Helenius can be hurt, though, as we saw him losing to former world title challenger Gerald Washington by an eighth-round stoppage in July 2019 and Johann Duhaupas in a sixth-round knockout in April 2016. He also lost to Dillian Whyte by a 12-round unanimous decision in 2017.
Wilder should arguably be fighting former unified champion Andy Ruiz Jr next because that’s a fight that would sell on FOX Sports PPV.
The risk would be high for Wilder against Ruiz, but the payday would be tremendous, and the fight would attract more attention than for him to face Finnish heavyweight Helenius.
