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Until earlier today, Dereck Chisora was all set to face Robert Helenius for the latter's newly-won EBU heavyweight title. Now, he could have a somewhat stiffer test ahead of him.
Helenius has withdrawn from the fight for undisclosed reasons and, in the process, vacated his belt. Chisora's promoters, the Sauerlands, were extremely understanding about the whole thing.
— Kalle+NisseSauerland (@SauerlandBros) January 20, 2016
This turn of events paves the way for Anthony Joshua to challenge Chisora, according to Sky Sports, as he is the highest-ranked fighter in the EBU not currently negotiating another fight. Per Sky Sports;
"If Helenius gives up the belt then okay - thanks for wasting our time. The next one is Klitschko, who's lining up a Fury rematch. Then there's Povetkin, who's in talks with Wilder. The next one in the rankings is Joshua, so it would come down to a Chisora-Joshua fight. In the UK, we don't need to do much selling there!"
Chisora (25-5, 17 KO) is 5-0 since his lethargic loss to Tyson Fury, all five fights coming in the last six months. His competition, however, has been absolute garbage. His best win remains his bizarre TKO over Malik Scott back in 2013.
Joshua (15-0, 15 KO), meanwhile, proved his ability to handle adversity last month against rival Dillian Whyte, surviving some early trouble to destroy Whyte in seven. The fight marked his first time past three rounds and earned him the BBBofC title, which joins his Commonwealth and WBC International belts.
"Del Boy" could be a decent test, but it seems like his rank is the product of name recognition rather than any recent achievements. If he does manage to get his head on straight, he's a gritty and capable heavyweight with a decent punch, but not anything that should trouble Joshua. Anyone disagree?