Tensions flared backstage just hours before Anthony Joshua and Robert Helenius took to the ring at the O2 Arena, London as the ‘Nordic Nightmare’ was left furious by the state of AJ’s gloves. The Finnish puncher claimed that Joshua’s gloves had inadequate padding and demanded that they were changed before their fight.
“The padding is not even the same,” Helenius’ coach said during the pre-fight glove selection media uploaded onto Matchroom Boxing’s YouTube channel. “No it’s not, this is much thinner leather, don’t act like that. This is harder, thicker leather, it would be a big difference. Is it even an XL glove, an extra-large glove? This doesn’t feel like an XL glove.”
Helenius then walked over to inspect the gloves and exploded with anger when he took them in his hands. “Press this, it is not the same,” he shouted. “Say what you want but this is f***ing bulls***. Disgusting bulls***.
“The same gloves? My a**! F***ing bulls***. I need exactly the same gloves, those were not the same gloves. Everybody knows what the f*** is going on. Everybody knows, it’s f***ing bulls***.”
Joshua was set to face Dillian Whyte this evening. However, the ‘Body Snatcher’ failed a pre-fight drugs test carried out by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA) leading to the fight being cancelled. Matchroom scrambled to find AJ a short-notice replacement and reportedly approached Agit Kabayel, Gerald Washington and Helenius before deciding on the latter.
Helenius fought last Saturday in his first bout back since being knocked out in the first round by Deontay Wilder last October. He stopped fellow countryman Mika Mielonen in the third round in his native Finland.
The 39-year-old is hoping to score a massive upset tonight and bag himself a rematch with the ‘Bronze Bomber’. “Thank you for giving me this opportunity,” he said in the pre-fight press conference.
“This fight offer came to me after my fight at the weekend. I was going on vacation with my family but not anymore, here we are. We had a good camp behind us, and we feel ready. I am ready to fight, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. I respect him, he’s a good fighter. It’s going to be glorious. I’ve been chasing the World Title for 15 years and when you get this big of an opportunity you can’t let it slip and I will give everything to win this fight.”