(Picture credit: Seppo Sirkka, Eastpress.fi) By William Mackay: No one ever said it was going to be easy for the 28-year-old heavyweight Robert Helenius (18-0, 11 KO’s) to come back from a 11 month layoff to try and pick his once promising career back up and try to resume the same forward progress that Helenius once had going for him. He fought last Saturday night against 40-year-old Sherman Williams (35-12-2, 19 KO’s) and didn’t impress many boxing fans with his lack of power and defense.

Helenius never did have much in the way of hand speed, so that area remained as it was. But the the diminishing power was a disappointment, and of rouse so was his poor defense. The 5’11” Williams was able to stagger Helenius at one point in the fight after hitting him hard in the 6th round with a looping right hand that caused Helenius stagger backwards several feet and almost fall.

If he had been facing a bigger, stronger and more talented heavyweight, Helenius would have been immediately snowed under with power shots and sent to the canvas. As bad as Helenius looked for the remainder of the round it’s difficult to imagine him suriving the round had he been in with someone halfway good.

Helenius won the fight against Williams by the scores of 99-91, 99-93 and 99-93 at the Ice Hall, in Helsinki, Finland.

The positive for Helenius were as follows:

* Jab
* Chin
* Stamina

The negatives were:

* Lack of power
* Lack of speed
* Lack of an inside game
* Poor ring generalship

Helenius looked like the same fighter that struggled to win a controversial decision over Dereck Chisora last December. The difference in the Williams fight was that he wasn’t big as Chisora, and he wasn’t in the same kind of condition needed for him to take the fight to Helenius for 12 rounds to wear him down the same way that Chisora had done.