Helenius badly injured his right shoulder six weeks before Chisora bout; will undergo surgery on Thursday

By Boxing News - 01/16/2012 - Comments

Image: Helenius badly injured his right shoulder six weeks before Chisora bout; will undergo surgery on ThursdayBy Scott Gilfoid: EBU heavyweight champion Robert Helenius (17-0, 11 KO’s) reportedly badly injured his right shoulder six weeks before his fight with Dereck Chisora (15-2, 9 KO’s) last month on December 3rd, but was persuaded to take the fight anyway, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Helenius, 28, will undergo surgery this Thursday on the shoulder and his career could be in jeopardy. The recovery period is six months minimum, but it could be longer if the shoulder fails to regain strength.

Helenius’s father Karl isn’t pleased that his son took the fight with the preexisting injury. Surgery is scheduled for Thursday in Heidelberg, Germany.

Helenius tore a ligament in his right shoulder when he fell while jogging. In addition to this injury, two other ligaments were also loosened in the right shoulder. His collarbone also needs work as well.

In the Chisora fight, Helenius also injured his right knuckle. This injury, along with his right shoulder problem, caused Helenius to rarely throw right hands the 2nd round of the fight. If you look at the fight again, you’ll see that all Helenius was doing was jabbing with his left and covering up. He didn’t look at all good and seemed to wince when hit on the right shoulder area by Chisora.

The surgery will wipe out a title defense that Helenius was hoping to make against Alexander Dimitrenko. Helenius could be stripped of his title. He said this “I don’t care if I lose the title as long as I get my shoulder sorted out.”

Helenius would have been big trouble for Chisora had he been able to fight with a healthy right shoulder. You could see how much power Helenius had when he would on rare occasions use his right hand, but he would immediately stop throwing it after each use. No doubt the pain was too much for him to throw it unless he felt it was absolutely necessary out of survival.



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