By Jim Dower: EBU heavyweight champion Robert Helenius (17-0, 11 KO’s) will be pressing ahead with his career without any guilt after beating Dereck Chisora by a controversial 12 round split decision earlier this month on December 3rd in a fight that Helenius appeared to have lost badly in the minds of many who saw the fight.

Helenius doesn’t agree with the majority that saw him losing, and he felt he dominated Chisora. Helenius will now move ahead and defend his European Boxing Union (EBU) heavyweight crown against mandatory challenger Alexander Dimitrenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) in early 2012. January 16th is the deadline for purse bids for this fight.

It’s an interesting bout because you really can’t tell what you’ll get from Helenius. He was clearly-boxed and out-slugged by Chisora, although Helenius said he had injured his right hand early in the fight in the second round and didn’t have the power that he usually has because of the injury.

Unless Helenius can find enough power to take Dimitrenko out this could be a really tough fight for him. Dimitrenko, 6’7”, is slightly taller than the 6’6 ½” Helenius and has and longer reach by four inches. Dimitrenko has a better jab, better left hook and a lot better foot work than Helenius.

The only thing that Helenius has going for him in this fight is the better right hand, but it’s hard to say how he’ll do against a guy his own size.

Sometimes when you get big tall fighters like Helenius, who are used to dominating little guys, they struggle when they’re put in with someone as big as them that can touch them from the outside.

Dimitrenko is clearly flawed fighter with a questionable chin and a lack of power in his right hand. But he’s got the size, the jab and the much better foot work, and he’s also a much better fighter on the inside compared to Helenius.

We could see a minor upset here with Dimitrenko taking the EBU belt and handing Helenius his first loss of his career. Helenius likely won’t get another gift decision this time around. The judges will be too mindful not to make a mistake in scoring the fight in order to avoid taking heat afterwards like the judges did for the Chisora-Helenius fight.