By Jason Kim: A name from the past former WBO heavyweight champion Sergiy Liakhovich (25-3, 16 KO’s) is being trotted out for this Saturday’s fight against number #2 ranked WBO heavyweight contender Robert Helenius (15-0, 10 KO’s) in a 12 round fight at the Massehalle, in Erfurt, Germany.

While some boxing fans have seen this as a good fighter that they think will be a competitive one, I don’t see it that way. This is a mismatch because of how good the 6’6″ Helenius is right now compared to the faded, rusty and smaller Liakhovich. Putting an older rusty fighter like Liakhovich in with a quality heavyweight like Helenius is a guaranteed recipe for a mismatch.

Liakhovich hasn’t fought a world class fighter in three years since being easily beaten by the big and slow Nikolay Valuev in 2008. Valuev is someone that Helenius would have no problems beating if he were still around today, even the 2008 version.

That’s another sign that this Saturday’s fight is going to be a bad mismatch. Liakhovich is slow, fights in spurts and is easy to hit. He can be controlled with a jab and that’s something that Helenius has going for him – a great jab. He might not need much more than that. Liakhovich won’t be able to close the distance and if he does he’s going to run into one of Helenius’ left hooks or right hands and get hurt.

Helenius’ trainers have created him into a fighter very similar to Wladimir Klitschko, albeit slower and weaker. Helenius can do a lot of the same things that Wladimir can do and even has a nifty move where he unloads left hooks while backing away. This is going to be a very tough fight for Liakhovich and I can’t see him doing well at all.