Helenius lands first sets of punches to kayo liakhovich -
In the co-featured main event, Robert Helenius (16-0, 11 KOs) continued his impressive rise to stardom with another KO victory over an ex-world champion. After knocking out Lamon Brewster and Sam Peter, the Nordic Nightmare stopped a battered Siarhei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KOs) in the ninth round. It was an entertaining fight, with both men trading punches and landing clear shots. Helenius, 27, bruised his opponent´s face early and broke his nose in the second round but it was not before the eighth stanza that he exploded and knocked Liakhovich down with a powerful combination. The bell saved the White Wolf, but after 19 seconds of round 9 and another knock-down following a combination, the referee waved the fight off. “This is another big win for me,” Helenius said. “I started a little slowly but my coach Mr Wegner woke me up and then I did the right things. Liakhovich was very tough but I was the better man tonight and that´s why I won.”
Liakhovich gave Helenius, who defended his WBA/WBO Intercontinental Heavyweight Titles, credit: “He is very strong,” the White Wolf stated. “I don´t want to make any excuses or take anything away from him, but I broke my nose in the second round and had trouble to breathe. But he fought a great fight and deserved to win.”
Hall of Fame Promoter Wilfried Sauerland was full of praise for the hard-hitting Scandinavian. “That was another fantastic win,” he stated. “Robert has now knocked out three former world champions, which is amazing given his young age of just 27 years. His power is incredible and he has the potential to be world champion in the future. It was a great evening of heavyweight boxing.”
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
