By Per Ake Persson

Heavyweight Robert "the Nordic Nightmare" Helenius (28-2) heads for the United States and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the training camp of WBC champ Deontay Wilder for some sparring in the early part of May. With him is trainer Johan Lundstrom.

It´s not yet officially confirmed but Iltasanomat in Finland writes that next fight for Helenius is in June in the US against Adam Kownacki. (19-0).

Wilder faces Dominic Breazeale on May 18th at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Helenius was last seen in action in September of 2018 when he revived his career with an impressive knockout of Erkan Teper.

76 seconds. That´s all it took for Italian cruiser Fabio Turchi (17-0) to stop Sami Enbom (18-3) last night in Florence in the headliner of OPI since 82 and Matchroom Italy´s promotion. Enbom went down and out from a punch to the body in this WBC Int´l title fight. The Finn came in as a sub for Jean Jacques Oliver.

In other action, super welter Orlando Fiordigiglio (31-2) got a tough fight from Dutchman Stephen Danyo (15-3-3) but won a close unanimous decision and welterweight Alesssandro Riguccini (23-0) stopped Mexican Ivan Alvarez (28-10-1) in the first round. Alvarez didn´t put up much resistance. This was the Italian debut for Riguccini, who is Italian, but had previously been fighting in Mexico.

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In Laval, France, EU wetter champ Jordy Weiss (23-0) retained the title with a points win over tough Finn Jussi Koivula (24-6-1). The fight went the distance and according to Koivula on social media it was close enough for some to say that the title should have gone to Finland.

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EBU super bantamweight champ Luca Rigoldi (20-1-1) retained the title in a mandatory defence against Frenchman Anthony Settoul (24-8) in Brescia on Thursday (April 25) night. Rigoldi won on scores of 120-108 twice and 119-109 on this Boxe Loreni promotion.