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| Photo: Michael Owens Getty Images |
PBC suffered the big loss in their heavyweight main event on Fox as undefeated and heavily favored Adam Kownacki was stopped in the fourth round by Finland's Robert Helenius in a WBA title eliminator.
Kownacki had appeared many times on PBC televised cards and with victories over top twenty level heavyweights such as Charles Martin, Gerald Washington, and Chris Arreola, Kownacki was being built for an eventual in-house challenge of then-WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
Kownacki had been offered the chance to replace Jarrell "Big Baby" Miller last year in the "Andy Ruiz" role as last-minute challenger to Anthony Joshua and turned it down.
Ruiz would accept the call to win Joshua's three titles as well as a massive payday for the rematch,
as Kownacki was reported to be the next optional defense for Wilder after his obligations for rematches against Luis Ortiz and Tyson Fury were fulfilled.
Kownacki appeared to have another suitable opponent in Helenius, who fit the bill of Kownacki's last opponent in Chris Arreola- somewhat of a name in the division, as he had been around for a decade, wasn't going to run from Kownacki, would land enough punches to make an entertaining match, but not enough to derail the title train and would be durable enough to last a while, if not the distance.
For three rounds, the fight was going to plan as both fighters landing heavy punches with Kownacki landing more and doing more damage going into the fourth.
Helenius started the fourth round with a right hand that dropped Kownacki to a knee, but referee Robert Fields ruled the knockdown a slip.
It seemed pretty obvious to me that the knockdown was a legitimate one and Helenius, who seemed spent at the end of the third round, sensed that this might be his only opportunity to grab the upset and jumped on it as he landed a big right and following up with a left hook that knocked Kownacki down along the ropes.
A dazed Kownacki got up but in serious trouble as Helenius followed up with a compilation of punches and avoided the desperate counters of Kownacki, which forced Robert Fields to end the fight.
For Kownacki, PBC will likely try to rebuild him against the same level of fighter that he previously faced or perhaps they will decide to select him as the increased opponent level for one of their two undercard victors before Kownacki could lose again and lose even more stature.
For Helenius, suddenly he's first in line for Anthony Joshua only two fights after being knocked out by Gerald Washington.
Helenius was once one of the better prospects in the division after wins over Lamon Brewster, Sam Peter, and Sergei Liahovich- IN 2011!
Helenius' career began to stall after he "won" one of the worst decisions you'll see over Dereck Chisora in December 2011 with promotional problems and fought just five times against lesser opponents until a stunning loss in April 2016 to, future Deontay Wilder enhancement talent, Johann Duhaupas sent him out of contention with his only name opponents, before the Kownacki win, both defeating Helenius in Dillian Whyte and Gerald Washington.
Give Helenius plenty of credit for his upset win, considering his track record, it's ridiculous to have him in line for a mandatory shot and this fight should not have been an eliminator or at least it should have been an eliminator to reach a final eliminator.
That title shot will be well over a year away though as Kubrat Pulev will be next with either the fight to unify all titles with Tyson Fury or WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk following, so Helenius is either three or four fights away from that shot.
One would think that Helenius would like to stay busy during that time, but more than likely he'll take few chances on losing the title shot and payday.
The other two fights ended as expected with Efe Ajagba and Frank Sanchez continuing their undefeated streak with victories.
Ajagba stopped Razvan Cojanu in nine rounds in a fight that saw Conaju occasionally land right hands but was outgunned by the power jab and right hand of the undefeated Ajagba.
Ajagba knocked Cojanu down in the eighth round and might have finished him with more time in the round.
The die was cast and when Cojanu took a knee in the ninth after taking punishment, the fight was stopped.
I like Ajagba's offensive skills, especially the jab and I think he could be a quality heavyweight in time, but he's been vulnerable to getting hit with right hands in his last two fights and I wonder about his resistance to punches when he fights the next level of heavyweights.
As for Frank Sanchez, he won every round against trialhorse Joey Dawejko in winning a unanimous decision.
Despite the dominance of Sanchez, he never stepped up the pace against Dawejko, was content to box from the outside, and didn't seem interested in taking any chances against the durable, but slow Dawejko.
Sanchez is going to be a heavyweight that few are going to want to fight and even fewer are going to want to watch him fight in lopsided bouts until he faces better competition as he progresses to contender status.
The Helenius upset of Adam Kownacki might have been a bigger deal in boxing's big picture, but another upset occurred Saturday in the UK as Jono Carroll stopped former WBA junior featherweight champion, Scott Quigg in the eleventh round in Manchester.
Carroll consistently beat Quigg to the punch, walked down Quigg with harder punches to lead 99-91 on my card as he entered the eleventh round when Carroll hurt Quigg with combinations that had a badly hurt Quigg trapped along the ropes when Quigg's trainer Joe Gallagher threw in the towel to stop the fight.
The win was the biggest of the Irishman's career and combined with his very competitive defeat to then-IBF champion Tevin Farmer, Carroll should move up in the IBF ratings in which he was rated ninth entering this fight.
As for Quigg, he should consider this the right time to retire as he showed very little in his first try at junior lightweight after being out of the ring for sixteen months and since Quigg cannot make the featherweight limit, his chances for future success seem bleak.
In the Boxing Challenge, I scored four points to Ramon Malpica's three to stretch my lead to 45-40.
The difference was the Frank Sanchez unanimous decision rather than a knockout.
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