By Rob Smith: If you wanted to see a textbook version of a gift decision then tonight’s controversial 12 round split decision victory by heavyweight Robert Helenius (17-0, 11 KO’s) over visiting fighter Dereck Chisora (15-2, 9 KO’s) is the fight you need to see. Helenius won by the judges’ scores of 115-113 for Helenius, 115-113 for Chisora, 115-113 for Helenius.
However, Helenius looked like the loser in this fight, at least in my scoring, by a fairly lopsided decision. Helenius had no answer to Chisora’s pressure and superior inside work. I had a bad feeling about this fight early on when I saw the referee all over Chisora, warning left and right. It was as if Chisora was fighting the referee and Helenius.
I scored it 9 rounds to 3 for Chisora, and I feel I was being overly generous in giving one of those rounds to Helenius. Chisora had him backing up and covering up most of the fight, and really did an excellent job of working on the inside against the tall 6’6 1/2″ Helenius. With this win, Helenius captures the vacant EBU heavyweight title and makes a claim for himself that he deserves a shot against one of the Klitschkos.
It’s just too bad the judges’ scoring seem to run counter to what actually took place in the ring tonight, as Chisora worked Helenius over to the body and head all night long. The wasn’t even really close. Chisora was simply a much better fighter than the lanky, soft in the body Helenius.
In other fights on the undercard:
Jack Culcay KO 1 Giammario Grassellini
Jussi Koivula UD 8 Jose Del Rio
Erik Skoglund UD 4 Amine Belali
Cecilia Braekhus TKO 10 Kuulei Kupihea
Edmund Gerber KO 1 Marcus McGee
Edis Tatli UD 10 Pasquale Di Silvio
Jarno Rosberg UD 8 Manuel Alberto Pucheta
Alexander Povetkin TKO 8 Cedric Boswell