Robert Helenius has been granted the biggest boxing stage of his career by stepping in on ultra-short notice to fight Anthony Joshua at the O2 Arena in London, and live on DAZN, on Saturday.
The opportunity is clearly one that "The Nordic Nightmare" wants to take full advantage of and the veteran heavyweight is doing his due diligence to analyze AJ and draft his own fighting blueprint.
"I have to be 100 percent here to get this win," Helenius told DAZN on Wednesday, pointing to his mind and stressing the fight IQ he must haul into the ring with him in three days.
And that's just the start of Helenius' keys to victory in what would be a mammoth upset.
"I have to be active, explosive and elusive," he rattled off. "Really, movement, speed and everything is going to be key."
At 39-years-old, Helenius (32-4, 21 KOs) has proved to be a volume power puncher at heavyweight and he especially believes that his activity and output can be effective against Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs), who he thinks has touted more of a reserved, cerebral approach since being upset by Andy Ruiz Jr. back in June 2019.
"I respect him a lot," Helenius said of the former two-time unified heavyweight world champion. "Of course, I think he’s a little bit gun-shy from his earlier fights or I don’t know if it’s gun-shy anymore."
As Helenius analyzes it a bit further, he pinpoints Joshua tabbing trainer Derrick James as a possible reason for a change in style.
"I think it’s more he’s changing his technique with a new trainer and they’re making him with more movement, more checking around — not going in aggressive as he did in the beginning of his career."
Helenius has won four of his last five fights, including a third-round TKO of Mika Mielonen just last weekend in Finland.
Joshua has won three of his last five bouts, bouncing back from a pair of losses to Oleksandr Usyk with a victory over Jermaine Franklin in April.