Like Father, Like Son

Robert Helenius was born in Sweden, moved with his family to Finland at the age of two, and has dual citizenship as a result, which has allowed him to become an attraction in each of those countries. 

Helenius began boxing at five, inheriting the legacy from his father.

“My father was a boxing trainer and he himself had boxed in Sweden,” said Helenius, in a recent story on FightSports. “When we moved back to Finland he just took me and my brothers with him to training and we kind of got stuck there. I’ve been training since I was about 10-11 years old. I have over 200 amateur fights.”

A towering, heavily-bearded 6-foot-6 ½, Helenius won a bronze medal in both the 2000 at the European Cadets’ Under-17 championships and the 2001 Junior European Championships. 

Helenius also was a runner-up at both the Finnish Amateur Boxing Championships in 2002 and the European Amateur Boxing Championships in 2006.

“After that, I got a professional contract and moved to Germany,” said Helenius. “I lived there for six years, boxed many fights there and now I’m boxing here [in America.]”

A 24-year-old Helenius debuted professionally in May 2008. His three-knockdown, first-round stoppage of Gene Pukall was followed by four-round unanimous decisions over David Vicena (June), Engin Solmaz (September), and Nikola Vujasinovic and Remigijus Ziausys—the last two being separated by 20 days in November. 

“The Nordic Nightmare” stopped all five of his rivals in 2009 comprising TKOs over Enrico Garmendia (February) and Ozcan Cetinkaya (May) in the first and second rounds, a third-round stoppage of Taras Bidenko (November) and a pair of six-round knockouts of Scott Gammer (May) and Serdar Uysal (August), with Cetinkaya and Gammer being separated by 21 days. 

Taking Down Former Champions

Helenius went 4-0 (3 KOs) in 2010, starting with an impressive eighth-round TKO of former champion Lamon Brewster in January.  

In succession Helenius then vanquished Gbenga Oluokun (March) by eight-round unanimous decision before stopping previously unbeaten Gregory Tony (August) and Attila Levin (November) in the sixth and second rounds.

Helenius began 2011 with back-to-back ninth-round knockouts of ex-champions Samuel Peter (April) and Siarhei Liakhovich (August) before overcoming rugged title challenger Dereck Chisora (December) by split-decision, who slipped to 15-2 (9 KOs). It was a solid year for him, moving him toward world title contention.

Fighting once each in 2012 and 2013, Helenius earned 10-round unanimous decisions over Sherman Williams (November) and Michael Sprott (March). Helenius then improved to rose to 22-0 (13 KOs) in 2015 with a third-round knockout of Beka Lobjanidze (June) and a 10-round unanimous decision over Franz Rill (December), who entered at 12-0 (7 KOs).

Back & Better Than Ever

Helenius went 2-1 in 2016, a sixth-round knockout loss to former title challenger Johann “Reptile” Duhaupas (April) preceding 49- and 48-second stoppage victories over Konstantin Airich (September) and Gonzalo Omar Basile (December).

Helenius’ sixth-round stoppage of Evgeny Orlov in June 2017 was followed by October's 10-round unanimous decision loss to former title challenger Dillian Whyte.

“The Nordic Nightmare” won thrice more in 2018 before losing again in 2019. Consecutive split- and unanimous decisions over Yury Bykhautsou in March and August were followed by an eighth-round knockout of Erkan Teper (19-2, 12 KOs entering) before Helenius was stopped in the eighth round by title challenger Gerald Washington (July).

Helenius rebounded with November’s second-round TKO of Mateus Roberto Osorio, setting him up for a bout versus rising unbeaten slugger Adam Kownacki in March 2020. 

“Baby Face” Kownacki was to host Helenius before his hometown crowd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Helenius stunned the partison crowd, his fourth-round right to the jaw dropping Kownacki to one knee, and his subsequent left hook flooring him once more before a barrage of blows forced a referee’s stoppage.

“The first thing that my coach said to me was, ‘Let’s make Brooklyn quiet.’ I did that. I remember landing two shots. I knew he was hurt, so I was just trying to knock him out,” said Helenius. 

“I knew that he wouldn’t recover, so I just tried harder to knock him out or to get the referee to come in and stop the fight. I’m a two-time European champ and a soon to be world champ.”

Helenius and Kownacki would square off once again on October 9, 2021, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the Fury-Wilder III pay-per-view. This time, Helenius was even more dominant. 

Helenius battered Kownacki throughout to induce a stoppage at 2:38 of the sixth round of their scheduled 12-round heavyweight encounter.
 
Helenius used his height and length to box in the first, working the jab up and downstairs and briefly buckling Kownacki with a right toward the end of the stanza.
 
Kownacki came alive in the second and third, throwing punches in bunches, but earned a warning for two low blows that sank Helenius to his knees. The “Nordic Nightmare” took over from that point on, closing Kownacki’s left eye and bloodying his nose with thudding power shots.
 
The steady hammering continued until the sixth, when Kownacki landed another low blow. Referee Celestino Ruiz examined Kownacki as he warned him for the infraction and decided to halt the action.
 
“Right now, I want to go home to my family,” Helenius said. “I’ve been away from them for four weeks. Then we can worry about what’s next.”

Helenius returned to the ring on October 15, 2022, against Deontay Wilder in a FOX Sports PBC Pay-Per-View headliner. Unfortunately, his winning streak would come to an end as Wilder knocked him out at 2:57 of the first round.