From the outside looking in, it appeared as if Robert Helenius’ career came to an abrupt end in the eighth round of his fight against Gerald Washington in July 2019.

A right hand by Washington sent Helenius flat on his back that night. Helenius’ head rested briefly on the bottom rope and as he tried to get up, referee Gary Miezwa waved an end to a scheduled 10-round fight FS1 televised from The Armory in Minneapolis.

Miezwa might as well have waved an end to Helenius’ career.

Washington was blown out in the second round of his previous appearance by then-unbeaten Adam Kownacki and had been stopped in three of his previous four fights overall when he entered the ring to face Helenius. Washington’s string of setbacks included a fifth-round, technical-knockout loss to former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, Helenius’ opponent Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

At 35, Helenius seemed destined to become an opponent for developing heavyweights. Finland’s Helenius knew better.

In hindsight, the 38-year-old Helenius realizes he “probably” should’ve withdrawn from the Washington bout because he was very ill during fight week. His sickness impacted Helenius’ performance, but the 6-foot-6 veteran was still beating Washington on two scorecards through seven rounds (67-66, 67-66, 66-67).

That devastating defeat didn’t demoralize Helenius because he understood he couldn’t compete at anywhere near 100 percent with Washington, a former tight end and defensive end for USC.

“I don’t take that fight really seriously because I wasn’t my own self in that fight,” Helenius said during a virtual press conference recently. “I’d been really, really sick that week before the fight, so only I could know what went wrong in that fight. So, I don’t know, I just [kept] on working.”

Helenius has won three straight fights since Washington beat him. His back-to-back TKO victories over Kownacki (20-3, 15 KOs) have propelled him into this showdown with Wilder, who has sparred many rounds with Helenius at Wilder’s gym in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The 6-foot-7 Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs), who will turn 37 on October 22, and Helenius (31-3, 20 KOs) both will end one-year layoffs when they square off in a 12-round, non-title bout that’ll headline a four-fight FOX Sports Pay-Per-View show (9 p.m. ET; $74.99). Caesars Sportsbook has established Wilder an 8-1 favorite.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.