(Photo Wende) By Allan Fox: Unbeaten heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (19-0 11 KO’s) put in his third consecutive lackluster performance in beating journeyman Michael Sprott (37-20, 17 KO’s) by a 10 round unanimous decision last Saturday night in Magdeburg, Germany. The judges gave Helenius a wide points victory by the scores of 98-93, 97-93 and 98-93.
Helenius had excuses for his less than impressive performance afterwards, saying “My shoulder is completely fine now. The problem was that my right hand started to hurt a little bit…I didn’t use my right hand that often.”
Helenius looked sloppy, weak, and not the fighter that he was previous to his controversial win over Dereck Chisora in 2011. Despite looking poor against Sprott, Helenius will still likely get a title shot in his next fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko just by virtue of Helenius’s #1 WBO ranking, his status of being well known to German boxing fans, and his unbeaten record.
Helenius fits in perfectly with the kinds of guys that Wladimir seems to prefer to fight, guys like Jean Marc Mormeck, Mariusz Wach, and Francesca Pianeta. Helenius might not be as good as someone like Thompson, but he’s about at the same level as Pianeta. In other words, he’s a mediocre heavyweight with an inflated resume.
It’s too bad that Helenius doesn’t have to beat guys like Kubrat Pulev and Chris Arreola to earn a shot against Wladimir instead of having a title shot handed to him off of a questionable victory over Chisora, and wins over journeyman Sherman Williams and Sprott. But if Helenius had to fight someone like Pulev and Arreola, he’d likely have two losses on his record and then Wladimir wouldn’t be interested in facing him once he has two defeats.
Helenius’ right hand power hasn’t come back for him following shoulder surgery. If you saw the right hand shots that Helenius landed on Sprott yesterday you’ll have noticed that the power simply wasn’t there for Helenius. I know he supposedly hurt his right hand again, but the power wasn’t ever there even in the first minutes of the 1st round.
Helenius just doesn’t have the power needed to beat the quality heavyweights in the division, and his promoters are being very careful in who they match him up against until he gets his payday fight against Wladimir.
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