Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua last minute replacement

Better than nothing I guess.

 

Nice to know Dan Rafael’s source is BBC Radio

 

Helenius fought for 8 minutes at the weekend. He's got a full camp and a confidence boosting quick stoppage win behind him, he's probably more ready for this fight than he's ever likely to be. Zero pressure on him, decent payday, big name for his record, if I was him and offered this I'd take it all day long. Saying that he's probably going be offered the money to lose to Chisora for another "revenge" fight for that ugly woman beater.

 

Great news that the card will no longer be PPV. Kudos to Joshua, Hearn, DAZN, 258 and Matchroom for keeping the card on during a testing past few days for them.

This means Joshua’s last two fights wouldn’t have been on PPV.

Remember that Tyson Fury against Tom Schwarz and Otto Wallin in the US at 4am in the morning were on PPV in the UK. That was absolutely disgraceful. I guarantee you Joshua vs Franklin and Joshua vs Helenius would have been PPV on Sky Sports too.

Helenius is a big puncher and has only fought this weekend so would be in shape. None of the undercard is affected either. Perfect opponent considering the circumstances. Helenius is probably better preparation for Wilder than Whyte - Helenius is a lot taller and has a longer reach than Whyte.

Helenius is a better opponent than Chisora and Washington who were the other 2 options.

The undercard fighters would be unaffected. They don’t get any of the PPV money.

 

Remember when Lennox took on Vitali on short notice? AJ is a coward.

 

Your right both those shows would have absolutely been PPV on Sky and TNT

However the basic sub of both channels brings you a world of sport and you know it
Where as DAZN does not

There is very little value for British based customers right now on DAZN if your not prepared to stay up until 4am for American fights

Full credit to DAZN for reverting to a standard subscription show but it's not like they are doing it "for the fans" (trade mark Bricktop)

They simply can not justify it being a PPV without that main event

Like I say full credit to them but let's not pretend it's a gesture
It's more a long term strategy I'd say as the service is in the gutter

 

And it was very close to being a total disaster. A coward or intelligent enough to learn from history, especially with a huge fight in the pipeline?

 

Vitali was considered a glass-hearted coward at that time and his brother (who was considered more talented and certainly did much more in the sport later on) had just suffered another embarrassing KO defeat, so Vitali's stock was at an all time low. Lewis was a 1/5 favourite, it wasn't seen as a big risk at the time.

Lewis also didn't have a high risk mega fight immediately around the corner as Joshua supposedly does if he gets through Helenius.

 

Unsatisfied with Gavern and Molina, it looks like Joshua's going for his third helping of Wilder leftovers in Sugar Robert Helenius.

 

The main difference being of course it didn’t take him 30+ fights before facing the likes of Gavern and Molina.

 

A “testing few days for Joshua, Hearn, DAZN and 258” - how do you write this stuff with a straight face ?

 

Ah we now have Saudi Football, which blows any of Sky and TNT's other sports offerings out the water.

 

Hearn said he knew of 6 options and those two wouldn’t have been part of it. He does play with words so could have meant anything but specifically ruled those out.

So clearly Helenius was not the only option, perhaps the safest “credible” one for the money. Let’s not forget Wilder wiped him out in a round less than a year ago.

Agree with your points about PPV, every other platform would have Joshua as an extra.

 

The way it's going, and if it's anything like LIV Golf, the Saudis will be paying our DAZN subscriptions to get us to watch.

 

How can anyone say with credibility that helenius is a better option than chisora or Washington. All 3 aren't the best option as a fan but chisora and Washington are training for a fight this weekend, helenius fought last weekend. Straight after that fight he will have done everything he couldn't do in training and celebrated a win and most likely not stepped in the gym again this week.

Add to that the risk of a heavyweight fighter fighting 1 week after a fight. Let's say something happens like a bleed on the brain or he collapses we are always going to be questioning is it because he fought last week. Then there's the whole will he be drug tested argument etc.

Nah for me if you aren't going to use one of the undercarriage then they need to bring in someone like wallin or hughie fury.