LONDON CALLING HELENIUS

“What do you think?” I began my question to Johan Lindström, the trainer of Finnish heavyweight boxer Robert Helenius, in the locker room of Olavinlinna castle in Savonlinna on Saturday, August 5.

“… do you think Robert will want to fight again?”

Lindström began a long philosophical rant on how friends, no matter, happy, sad, or angry, never “push each other to a decision.” “If he wants to fight, I will respect that, ” he said.

What Lindström did not say was that just minutes ago Helenius had been offered a bout against the former U.K. world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua.

Indeed, a few minutes earlier a secretive meeting had taken place in the locker room of the medieval castle while I was talking with Helenius’ father, Karl, about how exciting it was for both of us to see Robert in the ring again.

The talks at the back of the room included Helenius, his manager Markus Sundman and trainer Lindström.

Helenius had just stepped out of the squared circle. Sundman had received a call. He had been told that Joshua was looking for an opponent. He was scheduled to fight Dillian Whyte, but he had failed a drug test and, now, they wanted to know if Helenius could step in instead. The call had come in earlier in the afternoon, but both, Sundman, and Lindström, had decided to keep their lips sealed until Helenius’ fight was over.

At the meeting, it was like Helenius could not believe the question:

“What?” said Helenius. “I’ve just fought….”

About five to ten minutes after receiving the news that would have knocked a softer man off his feet, Helenius was ready with an answer:

“Let’s do it.”

The planned vacation with the kids up in the forest, while fishing, hunting and living by the cabin would have to wait. The fight would take place next Saturday in London at the O2 Arena in a sold-out event in front of 20,000 spectators.

A moment ago, instead of clubbing his opponent Mika Mielonen, 41, to canvas, Helenius was standing back. He looked much taller than his adversary, who weighed 118,5 kilos and was 190 centimeters tall with, just like his counterpart, tattoos covering most of his upper body. Mielonen was hanging back on the ropes, with eyes and hands wide open, looking like he was begging for the big finish.

Helenius exchanged glances with the referee, thinking:

“Must I send him to the ground?”

The Olavinlinna castle built in the 15th century located not too far from the Russian border was fully packed with thousands of people cheering in their seats. Some were holding their breath.

The referee, a veteran who has called enough fights, understood the telepathy he shared with Helenius: he waved his hand in front of Mielonen’s face while pushing him back against the ropes with the other.

At first, Mielonen seemed to want to continue. It was the third round of the eight-round bout with some time left on the clock. The punch, however, had made a heavy thud sound; it landed near Mielonen’s ear. Helenius, 39, who is two meters tall and weighs 113,1 kilos,—and had won 31 of his 35 fights as a professional—was about to add the 21st knockout to his resume.

Helenius’ punch felt like “been rocked into a warm sleep,” Mielonen revealed to this journalist later.

Before facing Helenius, Mielonen had fought and won six of his fights as a professional. Before taking boxing, he played ice hockey in his youth as well as practiced martial arts. He has a reputation for spending more time in the penalty box than on ice.

Later Mielonen got addicted to boxing and wanted, and still wants, to see how far he can go so that “there will be no regrets later” when looking back on life.

With a clear disadvantage against Helenius on the experience alone, Mielonen revealed that his tactic was to aim for a hard “lucky punch.” Even a haymaker.

But Mielonen is not a gold digger. As a CEO in a security firm, he seems to have his finances under control, so he’s not in it for the money. (Neither is Helenius, for that matter, even though he, like everyone else, has bills to pay.)

Mielonen, like Helenius, is in the boxing game to feed the soul of a warrior.

“He was surprisingly tough, a respectable adversary. Could take some heavy hits,” Helenius said to me after the fight. “He was also faster than I thought.”

Helenius’ comments, folks, are indeed interesting. Mielonen told me that he had broken his right knee in the summer while running. “I ran into a hole in the ground and broke my knee and shin.”

In the ring, he was wearing knee support on his right knee but was still rather light on his feet. He seemed to be blessed with a healthy, powerful adrenal gland, which probably helped him sustain the possible pain of his injury but also the belting from Helenius. Mielonen has sisu.

He didn’t have second thoughts of taking the fight.

“What’s promised … is promised. Can’t back off,” he said firmly to Finland Today after the fight.

But, he would have wanted to go out differently.

“Mielonen told me after the bout,” Helenius said, “that he would have liked to have been sent to the canvas, lying on the ground.”

“But I don’t want to hurt anybody. The man has a family, children. Still, he must be the second toughest guy in Finland for taking the fight against me!”

Helenius knows pain as well. He suffered a tragic loss against the former U.S. heavyweight champion, Deontay Wilder, last year so this was a much-needed return to the ring. Later after the fight, Helenius told Finland Today that this fight against Mika Mielonen would be one of the decisive ones.

“I want to get a feel for boxing again. If the feeling is right, I will decide if I will once again go after the belt.”

In Olavinlinna, it seemed that the feeling was just right. This is exactly why manager Sundman and trainer Lindström held on to the secret that their protege had been offered a world-class bout across the sea and land.

Soon Helenius was on a plane to London. Manager Sundman followed him, but trainer Lindström had made plans to stay a few days in Turkey. He would fly to the British capital a few days later.

British boxer Anthony Joshua, 33, is nearly identical in height and typical weight to Helenius. Joshua is also a former two-time world heavyweight champion.

Anthony Joshua has a clean, straight boxing style, but has proven, especially in his three previous bouts, to be capable of changing tactics at the core level including higher or lower boxing stances, luring opponents into his fists, turning jabs into uppercuts in mid-air and giving hellraiser hooks, swings and, yes, again uppercuts, from the clinch. Needless to say, with 22 knockouts of his 25 wins in his resume—sending down opponents such as Pulev, Povetkin and Klitschko—Joshua packs devastating knockout power.

What more is there to say … anyone who follows boxing, knows Anthony Joshua.

But people know Helenius as well. I know Helenius well. I saw him under a week ago. He appeared strong, well-conditioned, loose and relaxed. In the previous months, he had been focusing on lifting weights more than on sparring. He had been working on his psyche, spending time with his family and just living life outside the squared circle.

And now, just seven days after his previous win, he’s as ready as he’ll ever be, back in the ring with new enthusiasm for climbing back to the top.