Helenius hoping to fight for a world title in 2012

By Zirny Lisiy Dmitry: Photo Wende & Winfried Mausolf – Fresh off his war with 35-year-old Sergiy Liakhovich last Saturday night, undefeated 6’6 1/2″ heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (16-0, 11 KO’s) is now hoping to get a world title shot next year against one of the three heavyweight champions in the division.

Helenius, 27, took out Liakhovich with a 9th round TKO after knocking him down twice. However, there was nothing in that peformance that would suggest that Helenius has the skills to compete with the Klitschko brothers unless they both get old all of a sudden. That’s probably not going to happen unfortunately for Helenius.

What we saw from the big Helenius was a lack of hand speed, foot movement and defense. It was painful to watch Helenius getting battered by the aging past his best Liakhovich for the first seven rounds of the fight. Helenius couldn’t or wouldn’t let his hands go. I think a big part of that was because when he would throw shots, Liakhovich would move in on him and tag him with multiple left hooks to the body and head.

Let’s be clear on this, Helenius wasn’t blocking a lot of those shots. There’s been talk that he was blocking most of the punches were coming his way with his gloves. That’s not what I saw. Helenius was taking punches to the head midsection and looking rather poor.

If Helenius’ handlers throw him out there with a Klitschko, he’s going to get obliterated and quick. I don’t think that’s what his German handlers will though. They’re going to probably go after the WBA heavyweight paper champion Alexander Povetkin next year if he still has the title by then, and look to get a win against him. They would then likely try and set up a big money unification bout with either of the Klitschko brothers. It would be similar to David Haye’s fight against Wladimir, with the fight making tons of money for both fighters but ending up as a complete mismatch with Helenius getting dominated.

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