Helenius elevated to #1 WBO off of unimpressive win over Williams

By Boxing News - 11/19/2012 - Comments

Image: Helenius elevated to #1 WBO off of unimpressive win over WilliamsBy Dan Ambrose: The WBO has shockingly elevated unbeaten Robert Helenius (18-0, 11 KO’s) to #1 in their rankings off of his drab 10 round unanimous decision earlier this month over 40-year-old Sherman “Tank” Williams in Helsinki, Finland.

This means that the 28-year-old Helenius will soon be facing World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in what would be one of the sickest mismatches that you’ll ever see.

Helenius has fought only once in the past year after winning a very controversial 12 round split decision over Dereck Chisora last year in Finland. The boxing world saw Helenius as a clear loser in that fight, yet the judge him the victory by the scores of 115-113, 115-113 for Helenius and 115-113 for Chisora.

Helenius tore up his right shoulder in that fight and had surgery on it shortly thereafter. Although his shoulder finally healed, his power didn’t come back as he looked weak against Williams earlier this month and ended up getting staggered by the 5’11” fighter at one point.

Ranking a fighter with only bout in the past year over the likes of David Haye, Kubrat Pulev, Denis Boytsov, Tyson Fury and Chris Arreola just seems wrong. That doesn’t seem logical to put Helenius over those guys given the controversial natura of his win over Chisora as well as how badly Helenius looked in his comeback fight this month.

If the idea is to pick out an easy opponent for Wladimir to destroy then Helenius is the guy. He definitely looks a lot easier to beat then the likes of Arreola, Fury, Boytsov, Pulev and Haye. That’s not to say that Wladimir wouldn’t beat all of those guys without too many problems, but it’s more of a case if Helenius looking not as good as those guys are right now.

Helenius was looking like a good fighter up until he fought Chisora. However, that fight really exposed a lot of holes in Helenius’s game and the subsequent shoulder surgery seems to have taken away Helenius’ power to where he’s just a tall skinny guy with no inside fighting ability and zero power. His jab is weak, his left hand nonexistent and right hand now more like a jab than a power punch.



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