Deontay Wilder isn’t calling it quits just yet. (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
(Richard Pelham via Getty Images)
Deontay Wilder hopes to reignite his career when he faces Tyrrell Herndon in a 10-round heavyweight bout on June 27 at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
The former WBC heavyweight champion, Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) will end a year-long layoff when he steps into the ring with Herndon (24-5, 15 KOs) in the main event of a Global Combat Collective show.
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Wilder vs. Herndon airs on BLK Prime in the United States, the platform that notably aired Terence Crawford’s 2022 title defense against David Avanesyan, among other bouts.
Wilder, 39, held the WBC title from 2015 to 2020, earning 10 successful defenses of his championship. The American lost the belt to Tyson Fury in their highly anticipated rematch in 2020 after the first meeting between the pair ended in a contentious draw. Wilder then came up short in the trilogy bout with Britain’s Fury the following year — a fight that won several awards for 2021’s Fight of the Year.
After rebounding with a first-round finish of Robert Helenius, Wilder and longtime rival Anthony Joshua finally agreed to face each other in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Wilder was given an interim fight first against New Zealand’s former champion Joseph Parker, who shocked a passive Wilder for a 12-round unanimous decision victory in December 2023, forcing the long-awaited Wilder vs. Joshua fight to be scrapped.
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In his most recent contest, Wilder was knocked out by Zhilei Zhang in the sixth round to cap off a 10-0 loss for Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing against Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions in the 5 vs. 5 event this past June.
Now with Joshua also coming off a devastating defeat to Daniel Dubois, and Fury having retired, Wilder’s name has popped back into the conversation for a potential Joshua fight in 2025. A win over Herndon in June could potentially set up just that for Wilder.
Herndon, 37, has won three fights in a row since suffering a second-round TKO loss to heavyweight prospect Richard Torrez Jr. in 2023. The journeyman also owns losses to heavyweight Efe Ajagba and cruiserweight contender Brandon Glanton.
“This is Wilder’s legacy reloaded, he’s still one of the hardest punchers in boxing,” Global Combat Collective’s Joshua Chasse told ESPN. “He’s on the road back to becoming the heavyweight champion of the world, and this is the first step.”
