Waldenbuch - In a battle for the vacant International Boxing Federation Inter-Continental heavyweight title, Robert Helenius (28-2, 17 KOs) looked in deadly form with a crushing knockout victory over Erkan Teper (19-3, 12 KOs) in the eight round.

Helenius had the edge in the contest, and then in the eight caught Teper with sensational shot for the knockout. A big left hand sent Teper down and out cold on his back.

Teper was coming off a three fight winning streak, after losing back to back decisions to Christian Hammer and Mariusz Wach.

And Helenius banks in his third straight win, after a poor showing in a decision loss to Dillian Whyte in October of 2017.

The two fighters were actually scheduled to face each other in 2015, but the contest fell out after Teper suffered an injury and withdrew from the bout.

IN OTHER NEWS: Ben Sheedy is full of renewed desire ahead of a return on the MTK Manchester show at Victoria Warehouse on November 9 and believes his narrow title defeat to Matthew Wigglesworth has already made him a better fighter.

The popular middleweight suffered the first defeat of his career in July via a controversial points loss in pursuit of the Southern Area title but remains adamant he’s seen resulting improvements already.

Sheedy, who will fight live on iFL TV, said: “I learned so much in that fight. The main thing was that you can’t take your eye off the ball for a split second.

“The main reason I didn’t get the decision was a knockdown. I hurt him and went chasing him blindly rather than cautiously. I went to throw a big shot to take him out, got clipped and went down. Now I know to focus every second, every minute, every round.

“I know I’m a better fighter due to that loss already. There are many little things I could have done that would have made the fight a whitewash in my favour. The camp was great – it was the best sparring I’ve ever done but then it went wrong on the night, so now I know all that matters is the night.

“I don’t feel I’ve anything to prove to myself or anyone else. I know what I’m built of and I knew if the day came I suffered a defeat, it’d never deter me from believing in what I can do.”

Sheedy’s return is part of a growing card at Victoria Warehouse, where Blackpool’s former world title challenger Brian Rose will also make his long-awaited comeback.