Helenius replaces Whyte to face Joshua on 12th August at O2 London.

A red hot PPV attraction or not, the recently scheduled Anthony Joshua v Dillian Whyte bout did make a lot of sense. Joshua, Hearn et al appear to have exhausted all avenues leading to Fury and we’re viewing a victory over Whyte as premium preparation for the muted Deontay Wilder fight that still appears to remain part of the short term plan. Whyte and Joshua both have 3 defeats since their first meeting and have 8 years of added maturity since their last meeting. The prelude to the fight seemed surprisingly civil making the fight appear more intriguing to the average onlooker. Unfortunately this past week the revelation dropped that Dillian Whyte’s Vada test sample had returned an adverse finding, causing a postponement due to the close proximity of the event. Many of his peers have been unforgiving in the days since the news dropped, Whyte had twice previously failed drug tests, notably in 2012 and 2016 when he tested positive to Methylhexaneamine and Dianabol respectively. Whyte has served a ban for the first offence and with such a huge opportunity resting on the Joshua fight, justifying the findings may prove an uphill battle for the Brixton man. With a week to go, Hearn and Joshua did release a press statement to clarify that they still intended to continue with the promotion and find an appropriate replacement. With 5 days to go rumours were running rampant with warhorse Dereck Chisora appearing as the clear front runner to face AJ on the 12th followed by IBF ranked Filip Hrgovic and US import Gerald Washington, both of which are scheduled to appear on Saturdays show. Tuesday 8th August brought us the revelation that Finland’s Robert Helenius would replace Whyte and save the highly publicised show. Helenius appeared on a high profile stage last October when he was starched in a round by Deontay Wilder in Brooklyn but more interesting, he scored a 3rd round knockout only 3 days ago over one Mika Mielonen in Finland. So Joshua v Helenius will feature at the O2 with an interesting chief support featuring former world title challengers Dereck Chisora and Gerald Washington, and tough IBF ranked Filip Hrgovic taking on the largely untested prospect Dempsey Mckean, both undefeated. It’s unknown as of yet if the show will be a paid Tv event but will be broadcast on DAZN globally.