Former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua is scheduled to face late-replacement opponent Robert Helenius on Saturday in London.
ANTHONY JOSHUA (25-3, 22 KOs) VS. ROBERT HELENIUS (32-4, 21 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, Aug. 12
- Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: O2 Arena, London
- TV/Stream: DAZN (in U.S.)
- Division: Heavyweight (no limit)
- Weights (in pounds): Joshua 250.0, Helenius 249.4
- At stake: No major titles
- Odds: Joshua 12½-1 favorite (average of multiple outlets)
- Pound-for-pound: None
- Also on the card: Filip Hrgovic vs. Demsey McKean; Heavyweight; Johnny Fisher vs. Harry Armstrong; Heavyweight
- Prediction: Joshua UD
- Background: Joshua was scheduled to face Dillian Whyte in a rematch but Whyte was pulled from the card after failing a drug test. Longtime contender Robert Helenius agreed on Tuesday – four days before the fight – to step in. Joshua, the former heavyweight champion, is coming off a one-sided unanimous decision over Jermaine Franklin this past April. That was his first fight since back-to-back decision losses to Oleksandr Usyk in 2021 and last year that cost him his titles and damaged his reputation. The Englishman has been working with American trainer Derrick James. He reportedly has been in talks to face former titleholder Deontay Wilder in his next fight. Helenius will have fought on consecutive weekends. He knocked out Mika Mielonen in three rounds on Aug. 5 in Finland, which obviously wasn’t a physically taxing fight. Helenius was stopped by Wilder in the first round last October.
