Deontay Wilder ‘never thought about retiring’ after losing streak
Wilder, 39, has lost four of his last five fights, three of them by stoppage. From his 2019 rematch with Luis Ortiz until now – a span of six fights – Wilder has landed four trademark right-hand bombs (one KO’d Ortiz, another erased Robert Helenius’ consciousness, and the two others knocked Tyson Fury down but weren’t enough to finish him).
And he’s won roughly as many rounds.
In those four defeats, he was stopped in the seventh round of the Fury rematch in 2020 and viciously knocked out in the 11th round of their attritional third meeting in 2021; out-boxed and outpointed by Joseph Parker in December 2023; and flattened in the fifth round by Zhilei Zhang in June 2024. Wilder, 43-4-1 (42 KOs), seemed for all the world a shot fighter in his last two bouts.
Regardless, Wilder is due to fight Tyrrell Herndon on June 27 at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. The fight will stream on BLK Prime.
Herndon’s 24-5 (15 KOs) record disguises the fact that he has been knocked out early each time he stepped up to fight difficult opposition. Efe Ajagba stopped him in their opening round in 2017, while Richard Torrez Jnr, the newest hope for a great American heavyweight, took him out in two in 2023. Herndon has won his last three fights since the Torrez defeat, all against unheralded foes. Two of those wins were split decisions against the 8-9 Miree Coleman and the 7-0-1 Rudy Silvas.
You’d never guess that Wilder had a fight in 11 days from his chat with Helwani. He seemed to be at home instead of training camp, taking the call from a porch with his children occasionally popping into the frame (in his defense, this past Sunday was Father’s Day and he has seven children).
He described a journey from being “selfless” to “selfish,” adding “it’s all about me at this point.” He also said that betrayal had a significant impact on his life, likening the sensation to “a dagger to the heart.” Wilder talked about his sports psychologist, whom he said filled the role of a father and brother as well as the listed job description.
It was as if he’d been invited on the show to speak about his emotional ups and downs over the years rather than his boxing career. Wilder spoke calmly and seemed happy – virtually the opposite of the trash-talking, “Bomb Squad”-roaring persona that terrorized all heavyweight challengers except Fury for a spell. Despite Helwani’s best efforts to steer him onto boxing-related topics, Wilder spoke very little about his pugilistic career at first.
When the conversation did turn to boxing, Wilder insisted that he “never thought about quitting, never thought about retiring.” And he showed a glimpse of his old, fiery personality when Helwani brought up the criticism for his notorious 2017 quote, “I want a body on my record.”
Wilder insisted that boxing is so dangerous that calling it a “sport” masks its peril, and that most viewers wouldn’t go anywhere near trying it themselves. Yet he’s continuing to participate himself at 39 years old, without the weapons that made him so dangerous in his prime, if his recent outings are any indication.
It won’t end with Herndon.
Wilder cryptically mentioned a future fight in another country – the mind goes to Saudi Arabia, where he could take part in an event of similar magnitude to his fights with Fury. A fight between Wilder and Anthony Joshua is potentially also still makeable, especially in front of tens of thousands of Joshua’s fans in the United Kingdom.
Whether in that bout or another one, Wilder will fight someone capable of hurting him badly, and he might then find the decision of whether or not to retire taken out of his hands entirely.