By Mark Eisner: Former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) scored a one-punch knockout in the seventh round of Robert Helenius (32-4, 21 KOs) on Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.
In a fight that consisted of two-way jabbing, Joshua connected with a monstrous right hand to the head that sent the 39-year-old Helenius down hard in the seventh round.
The contest was immediately halted, as Helenius was badly hurt and in no condition to get back to his feet. The time of the stoppage was at 1:27 of round seven.
Undercard results:
- In a battle of aging heavyweights with a combined age of 80, Dereck Chisora (34-13, 23 KOs) defeated 41-year-old world title challenger Gerald Washington (20-6-1, 13 KOs) by a lackluster ten round unanimous decision. The scores were 97-94, 98-93, and 96-94. Chisora, 39, suffered a cut over his right eye from a clash of heads in round two. Though most of the contest, Chisora chased a reluctant to engage Washington around the ring, throwing slow body shots and looping right hooks to the head. The movement by Washington made it difficult for Chisora to land often, but he connected with enough shots to win a clear decision. It’s hard to believe that Washington was in the running to get the fight against Anthony Joshua, which says a lot about how far he’s slipped. Washington looked woefully bad tonight, and Chisora was not much better.
- Heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic (16-0, 13 KOs) retained his IBF mandatory position with a twelfth round knockout against previously unbeaten southpaw Demsey McKean (22-1, 14 KOs). The 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Hrgovic staggered McKean with a right hand to the head in the twelfth. Then hammered him with repeated rabbit punches to the head, resulting in the referee halting the contest. The time of the stoppage was at 1:01 of round twelve. McKean had hurt the 31-year-old Hrgovic with body shots in the eleventh. In the ninth, Hrgovic had McKean out on his feet with a right hand to the head. Hrgovic landed numerous rabbit punches from the sixth round until the end of the fight. It’s unclear why the referee didn’t warn, penalize or disqualify Hrgovic for those illegal rabbit punches because were so many of them. McKean’s corner should have alerted the referee to do his job, but that didn’t appear to happen. Both fighters were exhausted from the fifth round, holding and doing little. Hrgovic’s trainer Ronnie Shields was imploring him to be busier, but he failed to follow his instructions due to fatigue. Hrgovic was looking for one big shot during the entire fight and not putting his hands together. With the way Hrgovic fought tonight, he’s not going to beat IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk unless he hurts him with a rabbit punch.
- British domestic heavyweight Johnny Fisher (10-0, 9 KOs) stopped Harry Armstrong (5-2-1) by a seventh round stoppage. Fisher, 24, hurt Armstrong with a big right hand to the jaw in the 7th, stunning him badly. Armstrong’s corner threw in the towel after a follow-up barrage from Fisher. With the victory, Fisher captured the vacant BBBofC Southern Area heavyweight title. Fisher dropped Armstrong in the first 15 seconds earlier in the fight after backing him up against the ropes. The time of the stoppage was at 1:19 of round seven. All in all, it was a good performance from Fisher. However, he showed issues with his conditioning and his one-dimensional offense, throwing exclusively looping right hands that frequently landed on the back of Armstrong’s head. At this point, it’s hard to see Fisher ever being a top 10-level world-class heavyweight because he is too flawed, and his stamina is beyond horrible.
- Light welterweight prospect Campbell Hatton (13-0, 5 KOs) kept his unbeaten record intact with an eight round points decision over Tom Ansell (10-5, 2 KOs). Referee Sean McAvoy scored it 78-74. Campbell started strong but gassed out in the later rounds, and took a lot of hard shots from the more powerful 30-year-old Ansell. Hatton’s uppercut was his main weapon in the fight, but he became predictable after a while, and Ansell took advantage of that. If Ansell’s accuracy were better, he might have won because he was loading up and missing badly all night with left hooks.
Anthony Joshua must be in top form tonight, facing his interesting replacement opponent Robert Helenius in the headliner of this loaded non-PPV card on DAZN from the O2 Arena in London. No one will be surprised if Joshua gets knocked out tonight by the heavy-handed Helenius (32-4, 21 KOs); AJ is at a low point in his career.
The card has four interesting heavyweight matches in addition to the Joshua-Helenius contest.
Dereck Chisora will be fighting Gerald Washington in the chief support slot. Chisora is a household name in the UK and always provides entertainment for fans, even in losing efforts.
In other heavyweight fights, Filip Hrgovic faces Demsey McKean, and Johnny Fisher battles Harry Armstrong. Light welterweight Campbell Hatton will be in action as well.
Joshua going to war tonight
“He’s so driven to perform at this stage of his career, and how can you not love that about someone?” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show, talking about Anthony Joshua. “No messing around, no going out, no cutting corners, no partying, just trying his heart out to be the best version of himself, and as a country, we should support that.
“He’s such a great role model. Well, I think we don’t because we’re just
We’re British. As soon as you see someone start rising and reaching out above everybody else, you want to cut them back down again,” said Hearn about his disappointment about the UK boxing fans not giving Joshua the support that he feels he deserves.
“History will tell you when Frank Bruno won a world heavyweight title, he became less popular because ‘He was our Frank, who couldn’t quite win a world title. He’s not very good, but I’ll tell you what, we love our Frank.’
“He goes out and beats Oliver McCall, and he’s world champion. ‘Yeah, but he beat Oliver McCall; he’s not a real world champion.’ It’s not, ‘He’s finally done it. What a great Brit.’
“This man [Joshua], you can’t not like him. He hasn’t got a bad bone in his body. He’ll stop and talk with everybody. You know that. He’ll give time to everyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s kids at a local boxing club.
“Let’s get behind him. It’s the last phase of his career. It could be his last fight. It could be three fights; it could be five fights; it could be one fight.
“So, we’ll cross our fingers for him on Saturday night and watch him go to war in a dangerous, tricky heavyweight fight on an unbelievable undercard, one of the best non-pay-per-view cards we’ve ever put on,” said Hearn about tonight’s Joshua vs. Helenius undercard.