CAST in bronze in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Deontay Wilder, 43-4-1 (42 KOs), has cemented his legacy in the sport, recognised as one of the hardest punchers and most fearsome heavyweights of the 21st century, though he has noticeably declined in recent fights.
Despite just one victory in his last five outings, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ has refused to hang up his gloves, remaining determined to return to the peak of the division during the remainder of 2025, with one fight against an American rival particularly getting his juices flowing.
Wilder held the WBC heavyweight title for over half a decade, knocking out all but one challenger during his 10 defences of the coveted green and gold belt—a draw against Tyson Fury being the lone exception before the Briton ended Wilder’s reign in their rematch.
That defeat kickstarted Wilder’s downfall, with an opening-round stoppage of Robert Helenius marking the Alabama-born power-puncher’s sole win since 2019, splitting back-to-back knockout defeats to Tyson Fury with shortcomings against Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
Last year’s disappointment against Zhang appeared to signal the end of the career for the now 39-year-old, but it has recently been confirmed that Wilder will instead fight on and seek to get back to winning ways in a lower-profile showdown with Tyrrell Herndon, 24-5 (15 KOs), at the end of June.
Speaking with TMZ Sports, Wilder admitted that Herndon is indeed a tune-up fight but maintained that he is taking it seriously, hoping to tee up a return to the big stage.
“It’s going to be a great fight while it lasts, but these fights that I have lined up—you can call them warm-ups or tune-ups or whatever they want to call it—but I am taking it personally and seriously.
“Once I have completed the task of these fights, then we will move on and put myself back into the limelight of the heavy hitters and into even bigger and better fights.”
With fans in the United States desperately crying out for a heavyweight to represent them at the top table, Wilder continued to give them hope by adding that he ‘cannot wait’ to eventually fight loud-mouthed compatriot Jarrell Miller, 26-1-2 (22 KOs), offering an intimidating response to the New Yorker, who recently claimed that he wants to ‘smash’ Wilder.
“The only thing that he is smashing is burgers, and he can barely do that well. With him, it is all talk, talk, talk. If that fight does land for him—I can’t wait for it.
“If it does land for him, I hope that he has already paid for his grave burial. I don’t play around with him, if I saw him today, I would slap the f**k out of him.
“I ain’t playing around with nobody, Deontay Wilder has returned fully and everybody will respect the name of him.”
Like Wilder, Miller currently has a fight scheduled for June, as he travels to Ipswich to take on undefeated Brit Fabio Wardley, 18-0-1 (17 KOs). However, with their schedules aligning, a Wilder-Miller fight could soon become a real possibility later in the year, particularly if Miller fails to spring the upset in Old Blighty.
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