By: Sean Crose
The 42-2-1 Deontay Wilder returns to the ring Saturday night after a year’s absence. His opponent will be the 31-2 longstanding heavyweight contender Robert Helenius. The bout, which is the main event of a Fox pay per view card, will be going down at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s center. Both men have power, but the real question will be how Wilder performs after suffering back to back losses within the distance to Tyson Fury over the past few years. At his best, former WBC world heavyweight titlist Wilder is extremely exciting, perhaps the hardest hitting fighter in history – which is saying something.
Provided he looks good against the determined Helenius, the individual known as “The Bronze Bomber” should resume his position near the very top of the heavyweight heap. A loss at this point in Wilder’s career would prove to be disastrous. For his own part, Helenius is coming off of two destructive wins over the popular and game Adam Kownaki. A win over Wilder would put the Finnish fighter into the heavyweight stratosphere, and would be the man’s crowning career achievement thus far. In truth, Wilder will be expected to get the win here, and likely in thunderous fashion. Even if he were to win by decision on Saturday, Wilder’s critics would take the opportunity to pounce.
Former IBF super middleweight titlist Caleb Plant will also be returning to the ring Saturday night. It will be Plant’s first fight since he lost his title to the great Canelo Alvarez last November. The 21-1 Tennessean’s opponent will be the 34-2-2 two time former world titlist Anthony Dirrell. There’s bad blood between these two, though, like Wilder, Plant is expected to win. Still, it will be worth finding out how much damage the gloved fists of Canelo did to Plant when he brutally stopped the fighter known as “Sweet Hands” last November. Although he seems well physically, no one knows how the defeat impacted Plant’s psyche.