Heavyweight Deontay Wilder is back in the win column.
Wilder earned a technical knockout over Tyrell Anthony Herndon in the seventh round of Friday’s main event at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. The time of the stoppage was 2 minutes and 16 seconds.
Wilder, a 39-year-old from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, entered the bout, which streamed on PPV.com, coming off a year-long layoff and on a two-fight losing streak. The first round was uneventful, with no significant power punches landing from either fighter – though Wilder’s jab had an impact.
Wilder mostly maintained that approach but slowly started to open up in the second round, dropping Herndon with a left hook at the end of the frame. He began the third aggressively, but he went back to his jab as Herndon couldn’t figure out how to get close enough to Wilder to land a shot. The fourth saw Herndon, pressing forward and landing straight punches on Wilder, turn in his best round. Despite that, Herndon was dazed at the end of the round by a left hook from Wilder while he was on the ropes.
Wilder continued to dominate the action in Round 5. Herndon was shoved to the floor in the sixth, but after noticing that Herndon was slow to get up, Wilder pounced. He became reckless looking for the stoppage, but Wilder managed to drop Herndon with a series of punches while Herndon was on the ropes. Wilder in that moment looked something like his old self, firing unconventional, mauling shots while he leaned on Herndon.
By the seventh round, Herndon was breaking down, his movement and punch output diminished. After a big right hand from Wilder landed, referee Ray Corona had seen enough and intervened.
“It has been a long road for me, I am just glad to be back in the ring,” Wilder said after the fight. “We are getting better and better.”
Wilder improved to 44-4-1 (43 KOs), while Herndon, a 37-year-old from San Antonio, fell to 24-6.
Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at .
