Fired up Chisora gets in Helenius' face at weigh in

From Brendan Galbraith in Helsinki: Helsinki Casino. The venue for this afternoon's weigh in for the "The Night of the Heavyweights' card - headlined by local favourite Robert Helenius against Finchley's Dereck 'Del Boy' Chisora for the vacant EBU Title (and Inter-Continental WBO and WBA titles) with Alexander Povetkin facing Cedric Boswell for the WBA heavyweight title.

The weigh in was scheduled for 4pm (local time) with medicals for all of the fighters taking place an hour earlier. Dereck Chisora arrived early and looked very relaxed and even engaged in a little flutter on the electronic board tables in the casino as he killed time before the weigh in.

However, the earlier relaxed mood soon gave way to a more intense version of Chisora when it came to the head-to-head. Chisora entered the stage (and scales) first, to stony silence which he immediately broke, as he roared to the polite, but partisan crowd "C'mon!".

Next onto the stage was the towering figure of the 'Nordic Nightmare', Robert Helenius. Chisora made it his business to stand right in Helenius' face, as the giant Finn was making weight. Chisora then took it upon himself to choreograph the head-to-head, getting right in Helenius' face as soon as he stepped off the scales.

Chisora mouthed a threat to the effect of "You are getting knocked out tomorrow night" and gave Helenius a gentle tap on the side of his face, then cupped both hands over Helenius face - gently slapping the big Finn several more times.

One of Team Sauerland and other officials immediately stepped in to break it up, before it escalated further - and it very nearly did.

Amid pushing and shoving, Chisora was launching more verbals to both Helenius and the Finnish crowd.

Chisora turned to the crowd and announced that he was going to knock out their local favourite tomorrow night. This prompted sporadic heckling from the, largely polite and subdued crowd, with counter verbals of "You will get your Nordic Nightmare tomorrow night".

After both men were separated, Chisora walked back towards Helenius (who remained at his safe distance) to attempt a second head-to-head, but officials wisely curtailed the second attempt.

After Chisora left the stage, Helenius regained his composure (although at this point his slick gelled hair had been ruffled) and conducted endless interviews with the a large crowd of media.

Prior to that, Cedric Boswell and Alexander Povetkin completed their weigh in without any problems or dramatics, aside from one of Boswell's team shouting "and the new" as Boswell stepped onto the scales.

Both men posed for the cameras and engaged in a polite handshake. Povetkin was flanked by his legendary trainer, Teddy Atlas and interim WBA cruiserweight champion, Denis Lebedev.

Weights:

Robert Helenius - 17st 1lb 6oz

Dereck Chisora - 17st 5lbs

Alex Povetkin - 16st 3lbs 12oz

Cedric Boswell - 16st 4lbs 14oz

Images copyright Brendan Galbraith/BoxRec News