Deontay Wilder boxes on Saturday in Wichita, Kansas, and he has been matched with Tyrrell Anthony Herndon.

Wilder has not boxed since his devastating five-round loss to Zhilei Zhang last June in Saudi Arabia. Before that, he lost a decision to Joseph Parker. 

“It’s a comeback when you retire and then you come back. You feel me? The terminology is always wrong. I say [it] when people use the wrong terminology all the time. They think when someone has left the ring for a significant amount of time and then they return, they feel like it’s a comeback, but it's never a comeback. It's always just returning from the ring. You leave the ring and you return to it. And in this business, you need those gaps. A lot of the fighters that started to fight when they was five, six years old, seven, eight, even nine, I understand how burnt out they get at a certain time, and they must leave and then come back.”

Wilder was a late starter, but he still managed to win bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is now 43-4-1 (42 KOs) as a pro, and he feels like he needed to rest up after consecutive losses.

“You know, some [fighters] don’t never leave,” he said. “They just still sit up in there and stuff, and over the years, it’s just wear and tear upon their body, their mind and their soul. “Then, after a while, after boxing is over and when they do have to hang the gloves up, they are fucked up. They can’t talk. They can’t see, barely. They barely got a job. They can barely support themselves, their family, and think about all those years they … risk their lives for others' entertainment, and they ain't got nowhere to go. They can’t even afford nothing, even food and stuff, while the same guys that promoted them and managed them, they’re still going. They got Rolls Royces. They got mansions, and some of them got private jets.”

Wilder is not short on funds. The former WBC titleholder from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said he lined pockets and was motivated to fight for others before, but now he is returning to prove something to himself.

Asked why he was boxing on, the 39-year-old Wilder said: “Because at this point in time, I’m selfish. It’s all about me now. I’m doing it all for me. I still got a goal in this business. When I first got into this business, it was to be unified heavyweight champion of the world; I never had the opportunity. Many times, it was there to be made, but nobody never wanted to give me the opportunities.

“But at this point in time, I’m selfish. I want to do it for me. I enjoy doing what I do, especially when it’s 100 per cent me. I’ve had a lot of things go on in my life that I’ve stated, many things inside of the ring, betrayal inside of the ring, being stole from millions of dollars; outside of the ring, the same thing, being betrayed, being manipulated, being stole [from]. I can’t even calculate the money yet, but God is good, though. You understand me? With all those distractions, even still, God is good, and here I am yet again to continue.”

Of course, after two significant losses, Wilder is now being written off by most. Despite the knockout percentage, despite his shoulder having been operated on and now being back to full functionality, there are plenty who feel that Wilder’s time has now come and gone.

Not him, however.

“It’s another thing to understand a life of how we fall down and how the hell do we get back up,” he explained. “Many human beings don’t understand the concept of falling but getting back up. It sounds simple, and it sounds like it should be self-explanatory and a common-sense phrase, but a lot of people dissect things differently. It’s just like the human race. All of our minds are different. All of our minds receive information and processes differently.

“You would think what’s understood don't have to be explained, but sometimes things that’s been said go over people's heads because they really don’t understand. The terminology goes, ‘If I knew better, I would do better.’ Understand me? A lot of people just don’t know better to even take the first step of trying to do better for themselves.”

But Wilder is not returning to silence critics. Having already put enough food on the table for his family for generations, he is not back for money, either.

He is back for himself. Call it ambition, call it greed, call it selfish. Wilder is doing it for Wilder.

“For this very first time in my life, I get an opportunity to say, ‘I’m selfish. I’m doing it my way, on my terms, for me.’ I’ve always had to do things for others all my life. I’ve always provided for others, protected others, nurtured others and others’ families, and so forth and so on. It’s just never been about me. I’m a giver. I’ve always been a natural-born giver, never a taker. I don’t know what it is to receive nothing, but my heart is pure and I’m always giving. With that skill that you may have in yourself as well, people can take advantage of it. They can take your kindness for weakness, and I’ve had a lot of that done. There’s no more.”

Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.