Deontay Wilder will enter the ring again on Friday night in Wichita, in a fight that could very well be his last.
The remarkable career of Wilder has been defined by a seemingly endless stream of effortless knockouts that he could deliver with either hand; there were also a series of shocking defeats. He has been must-watch television for a long, long time.
Wilder has stopped or knocked out 42 of the 43 men he has beaten and there is no accurate record of just how many times he has sent boxers tumbling to the canvas. It is probably well over 100 times; he dropped Tyson Fury four times, and he never beat him.
The fight on Friday against Tyrrell Anthony Herndon, who is an old-fashioned journeyman, is expected to finish early. Herndon has been stopped quickly by prospects and dreamers – Wilder needs to do the same to him.
The fall from grace of Wilder has been spectacular. He won the world heavyweight title in 2015, knocked out nine men in defences and then lost to Fury in 2020. The rumours of loaded gloves and excuses for the shock stoppage started early, and they continue to this day. However, there was no shame in that defeat or the one a year later, also against Fury, which was one of the great heavyweight title fights. Wilder found himself a little isolated, a bad loser, inactive, and his relevancy waned.
In late 2023, he was easily beaten by the resurgent Joseph Parker and Wilder looked bad on the night; his timing was wrong, his movement looked unsteady, his balance – which was never a strong point – was disturbing. It went the distance and when it was done at dawn in Riyadh, it looked like Wilder was finished at the elite level.
However, there were more excuses, and he insisted that he did have enough left – enough left to get back in touch with the big boys and make some serious money. Fury, Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk watched. The brutal truth is that, even with the loss against Parker, one quick win would put Wilder right back in contention.
Wilder had always talked about his version of boxing’s physics; he needed, he repeated, less than a second to land a knockout punch, but his opponents had to be alert and survive 36 minutes. During his reign as champion, Wilder could drift in fights, look awful and fall behind on points, right up until the instant he connected.
His first fight with veteran Luis Ortiz, in 2019, is a perfect example of Wilder not fighting with any conviction and getting dominated. After six completed rounds, all three judges had Ortiz in front, and the Cuban exile was starting to look for an ending. At the time of the knockout, Wilder had been rocked back, and a real shock looked possible. Instead, Wilder landed one clean right cross to the temple, and Ortiz was down and out for the count. It was devastating.
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Wilder convinced enough people that the Parker loss was an aberration, convinced enough people that he could still deliver the single-punch finish that fans love. In June of last year, he was invited back to Riyadh to fight Zhilei Zhang. It was never going to be a long fight, never going to be a chess match. Zhang had knocked out 21 men, Wilder had done the same to 42 men. They were both fighting for their survival at the top level, having both been outpointed by Parker in their previous fights. It was, in many ways, the last-chance saloon for the loser. Well, that was the thinking.
It was a fun fight from the start; Zhang and Wilder were hurting each other. In the fifth round, Zhang landed a short hook, and Wilder was turned by the momentum of the punch and staring out, away from the ring. Zhang got close, pounced, and landed one final sickening punch. Down went Wilder. It was the end.
Since that night last summer, Zhang has had one fight and was stopped by Agit Kabayel, but Wilder vanished for close to a year. In that time, Fury retired, and Joshua was knocked out by Daniel Dubois and is currently injured. The landscape has shifted, and now Wilder is back – well, actually, he insists that he never retired.
Wilder is now 39, which is just another number in modern boxing, and has mentioned Joshua as a future opponent. Wilder has also been linked with a few other fighters – all that he has to do is land a classic Wilder right cross, send Herndon to dreamland, and then the offers will start to come.
Wilder, even a broken Wilder, is still good business. The harsh truth is that he has looked broken in his last two fights, but that will not matter if he finds the target.
