By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated Robert Helenius (10-0, 6 KO’s) won by a 3rd round stoppage victory over Ukrainian Taras Bidenko (26-4, 12 KO’s) on Saturday night at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bayern, Germany. Helenius, 25, was in control over the fight at the time of the stoppage, which came at the end of the 3rd round due to a large cut over the right eye of Bindenko.
Using his two inch height advantage over Bindenko, the 6’6 1/2″ Helenius jabbed away at Bindenko from the outside, and pierced Bindenko’s defense with accurate right hands to the head. Helenius seemed kind of stiff, and not very powerful. However, he looked good and used his height and reach advantage well in the fight.
Bindenko had a hard time hitting Helenius, because he would back away quickly whenever Bindenko even hinted at trying to land any shots of his won. All three rounds were entirely one-sided with Bindenko getting hit continuously and very rarely throwing anything back at Helenius. Bidenko came into the fight having been stopped in his last fight against Denis Boytsov in June. Bidenko looked like a shell of his former self and didn’t fight back with the old aggression that he used to have prior to being stopped by Boytsov.
In the 2nd round, Bindenko was cut above his right eye. That didn’t help him any, as the blood dripped down constantly into his right eye making him blink a lot and making it hard for him to see. In the 3rd round, Helenius landed some nice right hands. Bidenko fought back only sparingly and looked unmotivated. After the round ended, the fight was stopped by the referee.
Helenius will have a big test in the way of former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster in December. That will be just as big a test for the 36-year-old Brewster, who was defeated in his last bout against Gbenga Oloukun in an eight round decision loss. Brewster can’t afford to lose and still remain as a title contender.
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In a battle of former Olympians, unbeaten Bulgarian heavyweight Kubrat Pulev (3-0, 2 KO’s) defeated Gbenga Oloukun (17-3, 10 KO’s) by a six round unanimous decision. The final judges’ scores were 59-55, 60-54 and 60-54. Pulev, 28, looked very polished for a fighter with only two fights under his belt. However, he has an extensive amateur background which includes wins over former amateur stars Odlanier Solis and Alexander Alekseev among many others.
The big 6’4 1/2″ Pulev jabbed mostly jabbed during the opening round. Near the end of the round, he landed some nice power shots. In two and three, Pulev landed some hard left hands to the head of Oloukun. Pulev was warned for throwing a shot below the belt late in the 3rd round. In rounds four through six, Pulev stuck to his jab and started adding power shots in the 6th round.
He was warned for throwing a right hand to the top of Oloukun’s head in the 6th round. And he also appeared to hit Oloukun with a hard right elbow in the same round. Oloukun did very little in either round and looked intimidated by Pulev.
For Oloukun, this is his second straight loss for him. He lost his last fight, an eight round decision to Rene Dettweiler in October. Before that, Oloukun’s career was moving along smoothly with an right round decision over Brewster in October. However, this is his third defeat in his last four fights and it appears that he’s on his way to journeyman status if this downward trend continues.
The one problem for Oloukun is his lack of height. He’s only 6’1″, which is far too short for the heavyweight division. He doesn’t have the big power or speed needed to excel at the heavyweight division and would be better off if he moved down in weight to the cruiserweight division. However, he weighs a solid 230 and it would probably be impossible for him to melt down in weight and be at all successful at the cruiserweight level.