By Matt Lieberman: The heavyweight match between Adam Kownacki and Robert Helenius is reportedly done for March 7th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Barclays Center is already has the fight on their schedule for that date on their site. Now the Kownacki-Helenius fight just needs to be officially announced by Premier Boxing Champions.
This is a fight that won’t likely attract much interest from fans in the U.S, but overseas they might like it. Helenius, 36, has lost to Dillian Whyte, Gerald Washington and Johann Duhaupas in the last 4 years. His one big career win came ni 2018 when he defeated Erkan Teper by an 8th round knockout. That was a surprise.
Helenius will have puncher’s chance
The 6’6″ Helenius can punch, and he might be able to pull off an upset of Kownacki if he’s able to hit him clean with one of his big shots. It’s not exactly hard to hit the stationary Kownacki though, as we saw in his recent fight with Chris Arreola last August. Arreola threw over 1000 punches in that fight, and was hitting Kownacki with everything but the kitchen sink.
That was a strange one though, because the judges gave Kownacki a wide 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 117-111, 117-111, 118-110. The contest a lot closer in reality, but Kownacki was the A-side, so it’s not all that surprising that the match was scored the way it was.
It’s too bad Kownacki isn’t fighting Arreola in a rematch, considering that would be a far more interesting fight than Helenius. With the punishment that Arreola dished out against Kownacki, that might be the major reason why they chose to go a safer route.
With the high ranking Kownacki (20-0, 15 KOs), he can’t afford to take a fight against a good contender, and risk losing. Kownacki barely beat a past his prime Charles Martin in 2018. The Polish fighter Kownacki is ranked #3 IBF, #3 WBO, #4 WBA and #8 WBC.
While some boxing fans may not like this fight, it’s par for the course for Kownacki. The 36-year-old Helenius (29-3, 18 KOs) is the type of opponent that Kownacki has been fighting in the last four years of his career.
Kownacki still hasn’t stepped it up
If Kownacki defeats Helenius, he could get a world title shot. It’s time that he fights for a world title. He likely would have a long time ago if he’d fought better opposition, but that would have been risky for him to do. As Kownacki’s fight against Arreola showed, he’s not hard to hit, and he struggles even against fringe level fighters.
To expect the 30-year-old Kownacki to change his stripes after 11 years as a professional, it’s not realistic. Kownacki fights certain type of guys, and he’s not likely to change at this point in his career.
These are Kownacki’s last 8 opponents:
- Chris Arreola
- Gerald Washington
- Charles Martin
- Iago Kiladze
- Artur Szpilka
- Joshua Tufte
- Jesse Barboza
- Danny Kelly
