Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland - Robert “The Nordic Nightmare” Helenius (22-0, 13 KOs) fought his way to a twelve round unanimous decision over Franz Rill (11-1, 7 KOs) to capture the vacant EBU and IBF International heavyweight titles. The scores were 117-109, 117-109 and 118-109.
Helenius controlled the bulk of the action, dropping Rill in rounds one and four. Rill had some flashed of success, but not enough to change the tide.
Helenius was orginally scheduled to face Erkan Teper, who withdrew from the fight with injury and was stripped of the title.
The EBU issued a recent ordere where the Helenius-Rill winner will have to face Teper next. Should Helenius come through with that defense, he then has to face the next mandatory, Dereck Chisora who recently signed on with German-based promoter Team Sauerland.
