‘We need to get it at the root’: Anthony Joshua and Robert Helenius on boxing’s doping ‘problem’
Helenius will fight Joshua on seven days’ notice on Saturday, after the latter’s original opponent Dillian Whyte failed a drug test
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Your support makes all the difference.Robert Helenius puts it bluntly: “In Finland, if I would be caught, I would be lynched for my whole life.”
The 39-year-old Finn is the chief – perhaps only – beneficiary in this week’s saga, which has seen Dillian Whyte return an ‘adverse finding’ in a drug test, causing him to be pulled from his main event with Anthony Joshua. Helenius, on seven days’ notice, will now fight Joshua at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday, but he is still damning of a situation that has handed him one of the biggest bouts of his career.
“Of course it’s a problem, because I don’t think everybody’s on the same level,” he tells reporters on Wednesday. “I think some boxers have some privileges that others don’t. I think anti-doping should be the same in every country. For example, in your country, when Dillian gets caught, nobody cares. I would get a two-year minimum [ban], or I would never get a licence again.”
Prior to last week, Whyte had twice dealt with doping-related dramas. The Briton, 35, served a two-year ban from 2012 to 2014 and was cleared of wrongdoing in a separate episode in 2019. He will again be investigated following last week’s failed test, but no matter the outcome, eyebrows have been raised.
Helenius also references Tyson Fury and Alexander Povetkin as high-profile heavyweights to have tested positive for a banned substance before returning to the sport, with both men boxing on the biggest stage thereafter. “How is this possible?” Helenius asks, incredulously. “Either they should legalise everything for everybody, or have the same standard for everybody.
“Of course it feels like I’m at a disadvantage, because I don’t have that luxury of doing that stuff – because they come to my home to do my blood tests and everything, all the time. It’s not fair, but who said that life should be fair?
“My doping is: I have a really high level of Viking blood in me!”
Joshua remains calmer on the topic – stunningly so, given how this week has affected him, and considering that he was burnt by a short-notice fight with Andy Ruiz in June 2019, after his original opponent Jarrell Miller tested positive for multiple banned substances. “It happens in boxing,” Joshua says. “It’s not the first time it’s happened. [It’s happening more], so I wasn’t so surprised to be honest.”
Joshua, 33, also plays down suggestions that he might be ‘disgusted’ with Whyte, or even just ‘angry’. Remarkably, the Briton is generous enough to give some fighters the benefit of the doubt. “I hope it’s a mistake [with Whyte], but that’s why I have to invest in these tests, etc, and now I ask the team: ‘Can they get Helenius tested as well?’ It’s important to make sure we’re on top of these things. I actually don’t know what Dillian was caught with, I don’t know what was in his system.
“I don’t wish Dillian any bad. His reputation is tarnished, it’s not good for him. It’s not ‘disgusting’ [to me], but... Boxing’s not an institution where you join a club and everything’s presented to you. These guys go to local gyms, they’re probably around people who are doing dodgy stuff. I don’t know what it is, but you have to be very, very responsible. Boxing’s so tough; your body hurts, you’re tired, you’re trying to look for small advantages, and you’ve got some guy at the gym who’s always got energy, lifts more than you, trains harder than you, and he’s like: ‘This is what I take, take this.’ If you don’t do your research, it can lead to a positive drug test.
“I’ve been drug tested since 2011, then I started [pushing for] drug testing for my opponents around 2017. Who knows [if Whyte was doping when Joshua faced him in 2015]? I won, that’s the main thing! They must be doing it without knowing, because I think the money is better than a ban. Why would you go through a whole training camp to dope at the end and get banned? I just think they’re not careful.”
Joshua’s reaction is especially commendable when one considers that Whyte and Miller both accused “AJ” of doping, despite a lack of evidence. “You've got to question the person who’s accusing people, sometimes!” Joshua says. “It’s funny, those two actually popped dirty themselves. It’s probably because of my physique maybe, or my rise in boxing, it just didn’t make sense to them because they’re probably working hard. Sometimes it’s just natural – God gifted, and a lot of hard work as well.”
Joshua, who claims it’s “not morally right” to fight someone who is using a banned substance, also expresses frustration at a lack of consistency – not in punishment, per Helenius’s point, but in testing. “I get drug tested all year round,” he says. “Every quarter I have to submit my whereabouts, where I’m gonna be for one hour in a day, so they can turn up randomly if they want. It’s been like that since 2011, I’ve just submitted it every day of my life. Why am I under that pressure but other boxers aren’t? Once you sign up to a promoter, they should all have that under their organisation.”
Derek Chisora, a friend of Joshua’s, suggested at Wednesday’s press conference that Whyte might not be to blame but rather his team. Joshua’s response? “I can understand where Chisora is coming from, because I get a plate of food presented to me, I don’t cook. Who’s giving [Whyte] this stuff? But I know what I’m taking, whoever’s giving it to me. It should be easy enough to know...
“If I was to get caught on drugs, I’d be like: ‘Ah, f***; it’s probably this, this, this or this. These are the four supplements I’m taking.’ He doesn’t know what he’s taken or where it’s come from, he’s shocked. I know who gave me these bottles of water when I came in, who gives me my food, my supplements. It’s easy to track what’s going on in your life.”
Joshua again differs in opinion from Helenius, to a degree, as he says: “I don’t think we need longer bans, I think we need to get it at the root. It’s backwards, boxing. You’ve got someone that’s come out of the Olympics, with potential to be a champion, who’s training in someone’s backyard swimming pool! If that’s me, who’s got potential, then you’ve got a kid coming out of nowhere and training in his local gym... he can easily be led down the wrong path.
“There’s no support, no guidance. That’s why I always say: There’s the fight in the ring and the fight outside the ring, which is even harder. You need to get your s*** right outside; Dillian didn’t have his s*** right outside, and he can’t get in the ring.”
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