Robert Helenius just fought this past weekend and delivered a stoppage against Mika Mielonen. That activity has him in fighting shape to accept being a late replacement to fight Anthony Joshua on Saturday night.
That being said, "The Nordic Nightmare" is still looking to have a solid showing at the O2 Arena in London, and before a global streaming audience live on DAZN.
But the 39-year-old veteran is also looking to show the boxing world that he doesn't have any lingering effects of the first-round knockout that he suffered against Deontay Wilder in October. Helenius definitely learned from it.
"Against Wilder, it was more of an accident," Helenius told DAZN on Wednesday about his loss to his former sparring partner. "We had our gameplan to back him on the back foot because we have a lot of sparring rounds with Wilder. He never took a back foot in sparring — never! And then in the fight like this, [snaps fingers signaling a back foot and knockout].
"After one-and-a-half minutes gone in the first round, I was thinking to myself, 'there's something wrong. This is going too easy. He's going too fast backwards, there's something wrong.'"
Then, as Helenius recalls, he fell victim to the "perfect punch" in the form of Wilder's vaunted right hand.
"Of course, it was a devastating blow to my psyche and everything, but I've been training for a long time," he continued. "I've been boxing for 26 years and stuff like that happens all the time."
Helenius says the knockout was so destructive that it made him mull over retirement for the next four to five months, before deciding to get back in the ring for his final run.
This opportunity against Joshua presents the biggest world stage of Helenius' pro career.