By Jake Donovan

The show goes on for Robert Helenius, who will fight this weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. The unbeaten heavyweight has been stuck on the sidelines for two years – almost to the day – after battling injuries and in recent months with estranged promoter Sauerland Event.

Anxious to move on with his career, Helenius (19-0, 11KOs) opted to take a fight on his own, of the belief that he was no longer legally bound to Sauerland. The move led to a lengthy lawsuit which will still be fought in the courtroom.

A judge deemed earlier this week that while there exists enough evidence of an existing contract for the matter to remain in court, it wasn’t enough to prevent the promoter from blocking Saturday’s fight versus Hungary’s Andras Csomor.

Both sides claimed victory following the decision. Helenius gets to fight for the first time since March ’13, while the brass at Sauerland remains confident that the law will eventually see things their way.

“The court ruled that in their opinion our exclusive promotional contract had not been successfully terminated by Helenius advisors - something that we’ve always said,” insists Chris Meyer, general manager of Sauerland Event. “Therefore we see the contract in fact fully in force. However they did not want to stop Robert from fighting in Estonia on such short notice.”

In fact, the judge specifically stated that blocking the fight would cause more harm than good in regards to Helenius. His last bout was a 10-round points win over Michael Sprott in March ’13, while he remains best known for a controversial decision victory over Dereck Chisora in their Dec. ’11 meet.

Helenius was greatly admired by the brass at EPIX Sports back when the pay-cable network – based out of New York City – was entrenched in the boxing interest. Its interest in the sport seemed to evaporate roughly around the same time Helenius was no longer an active fighter. Injuries had already slowed his career to the point of having fought just three times over a 15-month stretch, and now not at all in two years.

While his eagerness to get back in the ring is understood, his current promoter remains puzzled as to why he chose to go this route.
 
“For us such a fight does not make much sense,” Meyer says of Helenius fighting in Estonia for a fraction of the audience and pay he’d have enjoyed had he and his handlers just played ball. “He fought his last fights in front of thousands in the arena and millions on TV. Now there will be only a fraction. Also his purse will be minimized.”

The irony in Helenius’ choice of date for a ring return comes on the same day Sauerland stages an event of its own. Thousands of miles away, Juergen Braehmer will defend his light heavyweight crown versus Robin Krasniqi in Germany.

“He could have fought for much higher purse on our show in Rostock on the same day,” Meyer points out. “But I think that his advisors have blinded him. The people he is surrounded by will not be able to put Robert back to any higher level. That is a shame for Boxing, Finland and Robert himself.
 
“We appreciate that he is finally medically able to box again. We are ready to promote his fights like we did very successfully in the past. If his legal advisors continue to advise Robert in the wrong direction, we will discuss with our attorney which legal route to take.

“But I assume that we will end up in a court in Berlin, or somewhere in Germany sooner rather than later. In any case, he will have a serious problem to box in any major boxing country, whether Germany, Finland, the UK or the USA, unless we are promoting or co promoting him.”

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox