This really is becoming a bad joke. It has today been revealed by VADA and by Matchroom how Robert Helenius’s pre-fight drugs test of August 11 was found to have come back with an “adverse finding.” Helenius was of course KO’d by a tentative Joshua the day after the test, this when the former two-time heavyweight champion finally opened up and let his hands go in round seven.
But imagine the uproar that would be taking place now if the man from Finland had won the fight. Matchroom confirm they were only informed about Helenius’s adverse test findings today, August 26. It was of course supposed to be Dillian Whyte in the ring with AJ on August 12, but the fight collapsed because Whyte failed a drugs test! Honestly, you could not make this up.
Just lately, it has seemed as though this fighter has failed a drugs test, then that fighter, then this fighter…..and so on. Is cheating within the sport really as rife as things make it appear? Something has to be done, that much is abundantly clear – but what?
A fighter takes a test, goes into his fight, and then his results are made public. It seems all we can do is hope his or her results come back clean. But as we know, this is not always the case, far from it.
As of now, Helenius has not spoken about the news regarding his failed test, and and it remains to be seen what punishment if any the 39 year old will be handed. Plenty of fans feel Helenius is pretty much done as anything approaching a top-level heavyweight, yet the “Nordic Nightmare” did say after the loss to Joshua that he plans to fight on.
Helenius may not be able to do so now.