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A would-be heavyweight contender will look to avenge one of 2020’s bigger upsets sometime in the next few months. Mike Coppinger reports that Robert Helenius and Adam Kownacki will meet again in the “first quarter of 2021” on “either FOX or Showtime.”
#BreakingNews with @MikeCoppinger - Adam Kownacki gets his shot at redemption after his loss against Robert Helenius.#KownackiHelenius #RingCityUSA #NBCSN #AnyoneAnytimeAnywhere pic.twitter.com/nPgtiiGbi4
— Ring City USA (@ringcityusa) January 5, 2021
Their first meeting produced one of the most surprising moments in a year full to the brim with ludicrous happenings. Kownacki (20-1, 15 KO), who’d comfortably overpowered a series of mid-tier heavyweights in Charles Martin, Gerald Washington, and Chris Arreola in previous efforts, entered the ring as a nearly 30-to-1 favorite. Helenius hadn’t beaten anyone more notable than a post-steroids Erkan Teper since 2011 and got sparked out by the aforementioned Washington in 2019.
Helenius ended up battering him into submission in the fourth, earning a “gold” title from the WBA in the process, and while the likes of Jeison Rosario vs. Julian Williams and Teofimo Lopez vs. Vasiliy Lomachenko dominated when it came time to discuss the year’s biggest upsets, this one was a doozy. The rematch figures to be plenty interesting, particularly when it comes to the all-offense Kownacki’s potential adjustments.