Helenius vacates EBU title, clears way for Joshua-Chisora fight

By Boxing News - 01/21/2016 - Comments

helenius456By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like Kalle Sauerland was right about undefeated Robert Helenius (22-0, 13 KOs) vacating his EBU heavyweight title rather than defend it against challenger Derek Chisora (25-5, 17 KOs). According to Fight News, Helenius has vacated his EBU strap rather than defend the belt.

Helenius wants to go after a world title instead of getting stuck defending the EBU title over and over again. The big money obviously comes from capturing one of the world heavyweight titles and then looking for unification fights against the likes of Tyson Fury, Charles Martin and Deontay Wilder.

By Helenius vacating the EBU title, it now increases the chances for a fight between the 31-year-old Chisora and #2 WBC Anthony Joshua (15-0, 15 KOs).

Joshua was previously on record of saying he wants to capture the EBU title first before he goes after a world title. Whether Joshua still feels that way is the big question. I mean, it’s kind of a waste of time for Joshua to go after pointless trinket titles against yesterday’s aging fighters rather than simply staying on the path for a world title shot.

I know if it was me, I wouldn’t waste my time fighting Chisora for the EBU strap. The last thing that Joshua needs is to wind up stultified in getting stuck fighting for lower straps and then having to defend them.

“The guy [Joshua] is still learning the trade and the craft,” Chisora said to skysports.com. “He said it himself after fighting Dillian Whyte that he still has loads to learn. He’s right. Me fighting Joshua doesn’t put me on the map. If I win, they’re going to say that I beat a novice. It doesn’t build a platform for me. I’m the mandatory challenger. He [Joshua] knows he needs to learn the tricks of boxing. He needs more experience. He does need more experience,” Chisora said.

I get the feeling that Chisora is using reverse psychology to try and get the Joshua fight. Obviously, it’s Chisora’s best bet for a big payday. By talking about how Joshua isn’t ready for the fight, it looks as if Chisora is trying to upset Joshua enough to where he’ll go after Chisora to try and prove that he’s ready to beat him.

Personally, I have no doubts that Joshua would beat Chisora. Indeed, I see most of the top 15 contenders in the heavyweight division’s four sanctioning bodies as being good enough to beat Chisora. Joshua gets nothing from beating Chisora, because the guy gets beaten each time he steps up. For me, it’s kind of off putting that Chisora was recently stopped by Tyson Fury in 2014, and he’s done nothing to redeem himself since that loss.

Chisora has won his last five fights, but he’s done it against pure 2nd and 3rd tier fodder opposition rather than facing 1st tier quality fighters. At 32, it’s hard to understand what Chisora is still doing fighting lower level fighters. I mean, I can understand Chisora taking one confidence boosting fight after getting whipped by Fury in 2014, but taking five of them? What the heck is that all about? Chisora used up all of 2015 fighting fodder.

It was such a terrible waste. Throwing away a year of his career on facing weak opposition at this point in Chisora’s career was a real blow it move on his part in my view. The guy should have been fighting better opposition by now, don’t you think? In 2016, Chisora has already burned up January by fighting journeyman Andras Csomor.

There’s still 11 months to go in the year, but what the heck was the point of Chisora fighting Csomor? Even David Haye is fighting better opposition than Chisora, and Haye hadn’t fought in three and a half years before making his comeback recently. I think Chisora didn’t need to have his career brought back to the elementary school stages after his loss to Fury in 2014.

One easy fight would have been understandable, but definitely not FIVE of them consisting of an entire year. If Chisora had some kind of injury that required him to come back slowly, then I could understand a couple of fodder opponents, but definitely five of them. What a waste. If I my promoter set me up with five fodder opponents, I’d be looking to get another promoter.



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