Approximately one year after losing for the second time against Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23 KO’s), Deontay Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KO’s) again proved his status as one of the most devastating Heavyweight punchers of the modern era by knocking out his opponent Robert Helenius (31-4, 20 KO’s) in the first round of their bout. The entire card was held on October 15 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York (USA).
Helenius seemed to push to want to push the tempo early, choosing an approach where he came inside the pocket rather than his usual style of boxing from the outside. Wilder initially seemed to struggle with Helenius’ pressure, failing to really pull off any decent shots while he was forced on the backfoot. However, Helenius style left him open to counterattacks, and around 20 seconds before the bell rung to close the round, Wilder landed a heavy right hand from a counter that dropped Helenius and clearly knocked him out cold for seconds. The fight was officially ruled a KO afterwards.
This victory will be a welcome change to Deontay Wilder’s fortunes given his last two fights were back-to-back losses to Tyson Fury. He now boasts the highest KO rate of the division – approximately 97% – and is now also set to face Andy Ruiz Jr. (35-2, 22 KO’s) for the mandatory position of the WBC world title. Whoever wins the fight between them, will face Tyson Fury for his WBC belt.
Helenius’ loss will be an unfortunate setback given he had been on three-match winning streak where he stopped his opponents in all those fights. His last two fights were against highly-regarded Polish contender Adam Kownacki (20-3, 15 KO’s), which was considered a surprise given Kownacki was somewhat of a budding prospect and said to have a higher ceiling in the sport given his age and talent.
The co-main event – a Super Middleweight bout between Caleb Plant (22-1, 13 KO’s) and Anthony Dirrell (34-3-2, 25 KO’s) – was no less exciting. Plant barely edged most of the rounds with slick footwork and well-timed counters while Dirrell proved his ferocity and pre-match intent to knock Plant out by relentlessly pressuring Plant. There were several close calls where Dirrell seemed to gain an edge, but Plant held on and by the 9th round Plant landed a stunning left hook that kept Dirrell down and out, resulting in a knockout victory for Plant.
With that victory, Caleb Plant has also managed to move past his last fight, which ended as a late-round loss to pound-for-pound fighter Canelo Álvarez (58-2-2, 39 KO’s). Elsewhere on the card was a 12-round match-up between two top-ranked Bantamweights, Gary Antonio Russell (19-1, 12 KO’s) and Emmanuel Rodríguez (21-2, 13 KO’s).
It was the second match between Russell and Rodríguez , after their first match (held on August 14, 2021) was canceled early in just the first round due to Rodríguez being unable to continue after a clash of heads and was ruled a no-contest. The rematch lasted all the way to the 10th round, and very coincidentally was again stopped due to a headbutt that Rodríguez failed to recover from. This time however the fight went straight to the scorecards, and Rodríguez was announced as the winner by technical decision based on him having greater scores of 100-90, 97-93 and 99-91.
Cuban Frank Sánchez (21-0, 14 KO’s) and Puerto Rican Carlos Negrón (25-4, 20 KO’s) also met each other in a Heavyweight contest; Sánchez ended as the winner by TKO in the 9th round of their bout, though their fight was considered pretty close on the scorecards with Sánchez only barely edging out his opponent by two or three rounds. This victory firmly embeds Sánchez as a top Heavyweight contender, and puts him closely to an opportunity for a world title.
Deontay Wilder in the post-press conference answered a slew of questions, starting with addressing some of the criticism surrounding his weight (as he tends to come in much lower than the average Heavyweight).
“I wanted to come in at a happy weight.” Wilder said during the post-presser. “God has blessed me with power. He didn’t bless me with size, he blessed me with power. That’s how I can hang with these guys that outweigh me 20, 30, 40, even 50 lbs.”
“I had to go back to what got me there.” Wilder continued. “My defense is my athleticism, my quickness is my athleticism.”
The former WBC world champion also became emotional to the point of bursting in tears when the subject was broached about his state of mind every time an opponents falls down, and he likened every such moment to former professional Prichard Colón – who was left with a career-ending injury.
“I am great at what I do. I don’t mean to take people away from their lifestyle of living.” Wilder said after a burst of tearful cries. “I’m just trying to support my family as well. That’s what we’re signed up to do.
“Robert could be the breadwinner of his family, but what if he can’t do it no more? Then what? Who pays the bills? Who pays the mortgage? He got kids, who will look out for his kids?” Wilder said.
He closed off with a very emotional message on the state of a boxer’s health – mental and physical – when being in the ring. “Respect these fighters man. Most times you see these fighters ask them how they’re doing. Give them a hug or something, tell them that you love them. Because sometimes that makes a difference, you know what I mean? Because you don’t know what they’re going through. How their day been? How they’re recovering? Because we’re never 100% when we get in the ring. Ever. And when we go through things like what Robert (Helenius) went through tonight, he may never be the same.”
