We have not seen the last of Deontay Wilder as a heavyweight boxer – the former WBC world champion is set for a comeback later this year.
The 39-year-old ‘Bronze Bomber’ (43-4-1) has not been seen out since suffering a damaging loss to Chinese giant Zhilei Zhang on that Eddie Hearn vs Frank Warren 5 on 5 card last June.
That was Wilder’s fourth defeat in his last five fights – all this after he’d started his career by winning 42 of his first 43 pro fights and drawing the other.
The wheels for Deontay – at his peak the most devastating knockout puncher in the division – began to come off when he lost his WBC title in a brutal stoppage defeat by Britain’s Tyson Fury in Las Vegas in February 2020. He would then go out on his shield to Fury after 11 brutal rounds in their trilogy fight in late 2021.
Deontay then stopped the rot by blasting out Robert Helenius inside a round in late 2022, but since then he’s suffered two further defeats – a lopsided decision to Joseph Parker in December 2023 and then that beatdown at the hands of the huge Zhang.
Deontay Wilder next fight
Many experts, and fans, believed we had seen the last of Wilder at the highest level with man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama having earned a fortune during his glorious career. But no, he will fight again, with the date confirmed for June 27 in the unheralded surrounds of Wichita, Kansas.
Deontay’s opponent will not be somebody that many fight fans have heard of, outside of the hardcore. He is Tyrrell Herndon, a 37-year-old journeyman from San Antonio, Texas with a 24-5 pro record.
Herndon has never gone in against anybody with more than 10 pro fights on their record, and his most recent loss was a second-round stoppage by Richard Torrez Jr in October 2023. He was also beaten by heavyweight prospect Efe Ajagba in the Nigerian’s pro debut back in 2017.
It’s clear then that this is very much a tune-up for Deontay – if he cannot get past Herndon, and fast, alarm bells will surely be ringing.
There is a saying in boxing that the punch is the last thing to go, and none is bigger than that Wilder right hand. So we cannot count him out just yet. The road to the top though is a long and unlikely one for Deontay right now, with the brilliant Oleksandr Usyk still sitting at the top of the mountain as the lineal and unified heavyweight champion of the world.
