Notebook: Helenius is a confident, healthy underdog going into fight with Wilder
Zepeda-Prograis fight official; Beterbiev defense against Yarde penciled in; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Sure, heavyweight contender Robert Helenius knows he is the underdog for his fight with former titlist Deontay Wilder, but he was also the underdog in his previous two bouts and won both of them by knockout.
Granted, those victories came against Adam Kownacki, who was unbeaten going into the first fight but not nearly as highly regarded as Wilder. Nonetheless, Helenius overcame the odds and stopped Kownacki in the fourth round of fight No. 1 in March 2020 and in the immediate rematch stopped him again, this time in the sixth round, in October 2021 on the undercard of Tyson Fury-Wilder III.
Helenius and Wilder are both coming off the same layoff heading into their WBC semifinal title eliminator because Wilder will be boxing for the first time since Fury knocked him out in the 11th round of their third fight, the 2021 fight of the year. Helenius is brimming with confidence.
“I’ve had a long career and I know how I feel before fights,” said Helenius, who turned pro in 2008. “I feel more comfortable and more confident heading into this fight than I’ve felt in a long time. Beating Kownacki was key to me and I know that without those victories I would not be here.”
Helenius and Wilder will square off in the 12-round main event of the Premier Boxing Champions card on Saturday (Fox Sports PPV, FITE and PPV.com) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The winner will be positioned to next face former unified titlist Andy Ruiz Jr., who won the other WBC semifinal on Sept. 4, in the final eliminator to become the mandatory challenger for Fury.
Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs), 38, of Finland, will be returning to the site of his biggest win, which was the stoppage of Kownacki in their first fight. That victory at Barclays Center put Helenius back on the map after battling through injuries and taking upset knockout losses to former Wilder knockout victims Johann Duhaupas and Gerald Washington. After the eighth-round knockout to Washington in 2019, most wrote Helenius off.
“I’m finally back in Brooklyn and it feels really good,” Helenius said. “I’ve had a great training camp and I’m ready for this fight. I’m doing everything in my power to be my best self on fight night. I’m very blessed to be in this position. I’ve been in this game for a long time. I was knocking guys out in 2011 before I had a severe injury that kept me out for a long time. Now is the first time that I really feel like I’m back.
“It took me a while to get back to normal training after the operation on my shoulder. I still have several more good years to give, so why not give it all?”
One thing that gives Helenius confidence is that he has been in the ring with Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs), 36, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who made 10 successful defenses during his 2015 to 2020 title reign. They are friendly and have sparred with each other during past Wilder training camps.
Their fight will be the real thing but Helenius said he knows an awful lot about his opponent and his tendencies.
“Deontay and I know each other very well,” Helenius said. “When we sparred he was preparing for a tall guy like me, while I was training for a very different kind of fighter,” Helenius said. “But some things do still get stuck with you during training. However, the fight is much different than sparring.”
Of course, the power Helenius may have felt in a sparring session — when neither man was going all out — will be different than what he is likely to feel in the fight.
“It’s tough to say if I felt Deontay’s power in sparring because of the headgear and bigger gloves,” Helenius said. “I think it’s more about his speed. Some people punch with a lot of force, but I think his best attribute is the explosiveness.”
Wilder is widely viewed as one of the most devastating right-hand punchers in heavyweight history and Helenius has been stopped twice, hence his heavy underdog status. But nobody can know just what Wilder has left after taking enormous punishment in the second and third fights with Fury.
“I like being the underdog. It wakes me up a little bit,” Helenius said. “I know that I have to concentrate fully and be the best version of myself. Of course there’s still some pressure, but that’s what comes with being in such an important fight.
“We’ve been training for this fight for a very long time, so we’ve made some tactical changes over that time. I obviously can’t reveal it but we’re going to be ready for Deontay.”
Zepeda-Prograis done deal
The Jose Zepeda-Regis Prograis fight for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title is official.
While the boxers will meet at a news conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, MarvNation Promotions formally announced the bout on Monday.
It will take place on Nov. 26 on pay-per-view at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, and fill one of the 140-pound belts vacated by then-undisputed champion Josh Taylor.
Zepeda (35-2, 27 KOs), 33, of La Puente, California, was Taylor’s mandatory challenger but when Taylor vacated to pursue a rematch with Jack Catterall rather than hang onto the WBC belt, next up was former WBA titlist Regis Prograis (27-1, 23 KOs), 33, of New Orleans, whose only loss was a close majority decision to Taylor in a 2019 unification fight.
“I’m really excited about this fight finally happening. This is not like other fights,” said Zepeda, who is 0-2 in world title bouts. “This is the top two in the 140-pound division. Fights like this you don’t see in boxing anymore. This is a real fight and the best part is that the fans are aware of this.”
Prograis has won three fights in a row since the loss to Taylor and campaigned hard to get this opportunity.
“I’ve been waiting for this fight for three years,” Prograis said. “I was a champion three years ago, and I stayed at 140 so that I can fulfill my goal and be a two-time champion at 140. I’ve been waiting long for this opportunity, and I believe Nov. 26 is when I will unleash my three years of frustration. I could have gone to 147 and got more money, but I always wanted to be a two-time champion. I changed some things around. I got a nutritionist for my last fight. I am very grateful for this opportunity to come again, and I will not let it slip.”
In a major surprise, MarvNation Promotions, which doesn’t promote either fighter, won a purse bid for $2.4 million to secure rights to the bout and so far has met the various deadlines for putting on the fight, which most expect to be action packed.
“This is one of the most highly anticipated fights in boxing,” said Marvin Rodriguez, the CEO of MarvNation Promotions. “Zepeda versus Prograis promises action from the opening bell. It’s an honor to bring this event to fans in Southern California, and we look forward to announcing the undercard in the coming days.”
Beterbiev-Yarde plans
Unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and WBO mandatory challenger Anthony Yarde are due to meet on Jan. 28, Yarde promoter Frank Warren told iFL TV in an interview.
The fight is indeed slated for that date at Wembley Arena in London and will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States, a source with knowledge of the details told Fight Freaks Unite.
The fight was originally penciled in for Oct. 29 in Yarde’s hometown of London but Beterbiev had knee surgery following a second-round knockout of Joe Smith Jr. to unify three 175-pound world titles on June 18 in New York — a fight Yarde was ringside for. The surgery caused the fight with Yarde was delayed.
Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs), 37, a Russia native living in Montreal, is boxing’s only current champion with a perfect knockout record. He has made six defenses, including winning unification fights against Smith and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs), 31, is coming off a fourth-round knockout of Lyndon Arthur in December to avenge a split decision loss in 2020. Yarde’s other defeat came by 11th-round knockout challenging then-WBO light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev in August 2019.
Yarde is due to have a tune-up fight against an opponent to be determined on Nov. 19 in Telford, England on a Warren card headlined by Liam Davies against Ionut Baluta for the vacant European junior featherweight title.
Quick hits
Per the California State Athletic Commission, these are the official contract purses from the Premier Boxing Champions event that took place on Showtime on Saturday night: Sebastian Fundora $300,000, Carlos Ocampo $75,000; Carlos Adames $100,000, Juan Macias Montiel $1000,000; Fernando Martinez $75,000, Jerwin Ancajas $100,000; Egidijus Kavaliauskas $50,000, Mykal Fox $25,000; Victor Slavinksyi $7,500, Edward Vazquez $8,000; Gabriela Fundora $10,000, Naomi Reyes $8,000; Justin Cardona $6,000, Angel Rebollar $5,000; Brandon Lynch $8,000, Roque Junco $6,000; Elijah Garcia $5,000, Edgar Valenzuela $1,500; Eumir Marcial $800 (not a typo), Steven Pichardo $6,000.
Super middleweight contender Christian Mbilli (22-0, 20 KOs), 27, of France, has been fighting in Montreal in recent years but will return home to headline a card on Dec. 17 in Nantes, France, against an opponent to be determined, Eye of the Tiger announced. The card will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States, according to a source with knowledge of the plans. In the co-feature, junior middleweight Souleymane Cissokho (15-0, 9 KOs), 31, of France, who was a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, will face a foe to be named. He has been boxing in both the United States and France in recent years.
Show and tell
Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder had already waged two memorable fights. Their first encounter ended in a controversial draw in 2018 in which Wilder dropped Fury in the ninth and 12th rounds but was outboxed for much of the fight. He retained the WBC title while Fury remained the lineal champion. The 2020 rematch ended with Fury knocking Wilder down in the third and fifth rounds en route to a dominating seventh-round knockout as he took the WBC title. Wilder had the right to an immediate rematch and exercised the option and they finally met again despite delays caused by the pandemic and Fury’s attempt to make a deal to face Anthony Joshua for the undisputed title instead. Wilder, however, won an arbitration case and Fury was forced to abandon the Joshua fight and meet Wilder in the trilogy bout.
It turned out to be an all-time great heavyweight title fight. I was ringside for all three of their bouts and the third one was the best heavyweight title fight I have ever covered in my 20-plus years on the beat. (No. 2 is Joshua-Wladimir Klitschko, the 2017 fight of the year before 90,000 at Wembley Stadium in London, and No. 3 is Lennox Lewis-Vitali Klitschko from 2003 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.)
Fury-Wilder III was action packed and dramatic as Fury knocked Wilder down in the third, 10th and 11th rounds and Wilder nearly stopped Fury, whom he dropped twice in the fourth round. In the end, Fury put Wilder away in the 11th round to retain the title in the consensus fight of the year.
Wilder makes his return to face Robert Helenius on Saturday night and Fury says he will be back on Dec. 3, possibly for a third and utterly pointless third fight with Dereck Chisora. But we’ll always remember Fury-Wilder III. The epic fight was on Oct. 9, 2021 — one year ago on Sunday. Here is a program in my collection.
Helenius photo: Frank Micelotta /Fox Sports; Beterbiev photo: Bernard Brault/GYM
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Surely no one regards Wilder vs Helenius as a competitive fight - it certainly shouldn't be PPV.
With respect to Helenius, I think he is the perfect comeback opponent for Wilder simply because he's about as mobile as one of those BOB freestanding punch bags and so Wilder won't have to expend much energy to get at him.
It seems just about guaranteed that Helenius will finish the fight flat out on the canvas. Should a competitive fight actually break out - I'll regard that as an indication that Wilder is on his way out rather than Helenius raising his level.
How do you say “Dosser” in Finnish?