Though the fight we all want to see is the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk-Anthony Joshua rematch against Tyson Fury in a huge all-the-belts unification showdown, it’s entirely possible another ordered mandatory may get in the way. Robert Helenius has twice beaten Adam Kownacki in WBA final eliminators, and Helenius and his manager Markus Sundman obviously want to be rewarded. Sundman spoke with Sky Sports and he made his case for his fighter being deserving of a shot at the Usyk-AJ II winner.
With the WBA set to decide their mandatory challenger it would come as no shock at all if the rematch winner was ordered to fight Helenius next.
“Right now we are focused on the WBA mandatory position,” Sundman said. “Robert fought a WBA elimination bout in March of 2020 against Adam Kownacki, and he placed a stamp on that victory in the rematch on October 9. Usyk should really be Robert’s next bout. There is no more deserving challenger in the WBA. [Manuel] Charr, [Trevor] Bryan, [Daniel] Dubois, are they more deserving? I think not.
“We will do what is necessary to assure Robert’s rightful position as Usyk’s next WBA mandatory.”
No-one ever said the task of becoming the undisputed heavyweight king was easy, did they! Helenius is of course deserving of his shot having twice beaten Kownacki (and just think back to how highly regarded and how promising the unbeaten Polish warrior was before he was all messed up by the big guy from Finland) but do any fans really have a burning desire to see either Usyk or AJ fight 37 year old Helenius? How much time would such a fight take up? How long would we have to wait to see Fury attempt to unify all four belts in a fight with either Usyk or AJ (should Joshua manage to get revenge over Usyk next year)?
To wonder nothing about what would happen if Helenius managed to score the upset over Usyk or Joshua! As exciting as the heavyweight division is right now, all these mandatories make the division as complicated as it has ever been.