By Mark Eisner: Anthony Joshua must be in top form tonight, facing his interesting replacement opponent Robert Helenius in the headliner of this loaded non-PPV card on DAZN from the O2 Arena in London. No one will be surprised if Joshua gets knocked out tonight by the heavy-handed Helenius (32-4, 21 KOs); AJ is at a low point in his career.
Joshua vs. Helenius undercard results & updates will be shown below.
The card has four interesting heavyweight matches in addition to the Joshua-Helenius contest.
Dereck Chisora will be fighting Gerald Washington in the chief support slot. Chisora is a household name in the UK and always provides entertainment for fans, even in losing efforts.
In other heavyweight fights, Filip Hrgovic faces Demsey McKean, and Johnny Fisher battles Harry Armstrong. Light welterweight Campbell Hatton will be in action as well.
Live boxing on DAZN @ 2:00 pm ET
Anthony Joshua vs. Robert Helenius
Derek Chisora vs. Gerald Washington
Filip Hrgovic vs. Demsey McKean
Johnny Fisher vs. Harry Armstrong
Campbell Hatton vs. Tom Ansel
Preliminary fights @ 12:15 pm ET
George Liddard vs. Bas Oosterweghel
Brandon Scott vs. Louis Norman
Maisey Rose vs. Gemma Ruegg
Joshua going to war tonight
“He’s so driven to perform at this stage of his career, and how can you not love that about someone?” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show, talking about Anthony Joshua. “No messing around, no going out, no cutting corners, no partying, just trying his heart out to be the best version of himself, and as a country, we should support that.
“He’s such a great role model. Well, I think we don’t because we’re just
We’re British. As soon as you see someone start rising and reaching out above everybody else, you want to cut them back down again,” said Hearn about his disappointment about the UK boxing fans not giving Joshua the support that he feels he deserves.
“History will tell you when Frank Bruno won a world heavyweight title, he became less popular because ‘He was our Frank, who couldn’t quite win a world title. He’s not very good, but I’ll tell you what, we love our Frank.’
“He goes out and beats Oliver McCall, and he’s world champion. ‘Yeah, but he beat Oliver McCall; he’s not a real world champion.’ It’s not, ‘He’s finally done it. What a great Brit.’
“This man [Joshua], you can’t not like him. He hasn’t got a bad bone in his body. He’ll stop and talk with everybody. You know that. He’ll give time to everyone. It doesn’t matter if it’s kids at a local boxing club.
“Let’s get behind him. It’s the last phase of his career. It could be his last fight. It could be three fights; it could be five fights; it could be one fight.
“So, we’ll cross our fingers for him on Saturday night and watch him go to war in a dangerous, tricky heavyweight fight on an unbelievable undercard, one of the best non-pay-per-view cards we’ve ever put on,” said Hearn about tonight’s Joshua vs. Helenius undercard.
