By James Slater: Dereck Chisora is the underdog going into his December 3rd clash with unbeaten heavyweight contender Robert Helenius, and “Del Boy” will pull off one of the year’s biggest upsets if he wins the battle for the vacant European crown. Yet the former British and Commonwealth ruler is so confident he will do just this, he has actually stated how Helenius’ team have made a catastrophic mistake.
27-year-old Helenius is 16-0(11), he is taller and has a longer reach than Chisora and he will be boxing in his homeland of Finland against the Londoner who is the same age. Yet the once-beaten Zimbabwe-born fighter is the epitome of an ultra-confident man right now.
“Believe me, this is the biggest mistake they have made with his career and I’ll be going over to Finland to knock him clean out,” Chisora told BBC Sport. “He’s called The Nordic Nightmare, but he’ll be having nightmares about me for the rest of his life after I’ve left him flat out on the canvas.”
Critics will have a tough time accepting Chisora’s words, largely because he was comprehensively beaten by Tyson Fury in July, in what was his biggest fight to date. How then, the critics will ask, can Chisora go in and beat the physically strong, hard-hitting Helenius. It’s a good question, too. But, in Chisora’s defence, he was hampered in training for the Fury fight with a hernia issue; this leading him to come in at the heaviest weight of his entire career.
Chisora, 15-1(9) still fought well in spots against Fury, and he knows he now has it all to prove. This could make him a dangerously motivated fighter. Helenius is a good puncher and he looks like a genuine tough guy, but he is far from the finished article. Chisora may be no complete package himself, but he has better overall skills than the Finn possesses. Many times before a big fight with a substantial betting favourite takes place, there is a sense of a possible upset in the air. This, in my mind, is such a fight.
I may be way off the mark, but I can see Chisora, down at his proper weight, outboxing the sometimes lumbering Helenius for round after round. If he doesn’t run out of gas and isn’t caught by a monster shot (both scenarios are possible), Chisora can win this one on points. “Del Boy” should, in my opinion, forget all about trying to knock Helenius “clean out,” but he can continue believing he will win the fight.
Unless he’s the victim of a “hometown” verdict, Chisora has an excellent shot at rejuvenating his still-young career in this one.