Deontay Wilder Beats Tyrrell Herndon By 7th-Round TKO in Heavyweight Boxing Fight

Deontay Wilder put himself back in the win column with a seventh-round TKO victory over Tyrrell Herndon in Wichita, Kansas.

Wilder took a patient approach in the opening round. While he’s been guilty of head-hunting at various points in his career he was more than happy to pump the jab in his opponent’s face to control the rounds. 

Herndon hit the mat for the first time in the second round. A massive left hook from Wilder found a home, knocking him off his balance. 

Wilder continued to show some restraint after the knockdown. Rather than continue to hunt for the right hand, he took his time and worked his full jab. 

Meanwhile, Herndon got credit for simply still being in the fight beyond the opening round. 

Wilder finally opened things up in the sixth round. He turned up the volume on his famous power and landed a few major right hands before scoring another knockdown. 

By the seventh, he was landing power punches at will and the ref was forced to call the bout.

Wilder was once the most feared man in the heavyweight division, but his career has taken a tough turn as he approaches 40. The 39-year-old had lost four of his last five fights heading into the bout against Herndon.

The most recent of those losses was a fifth-round TKO loss to Zhilei Zhang at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Losing on the high profile card was a major blow to Wilder's relevance in the heavyweight division.

Now, he's insistent that he's going to be get back to the top of the mountain. He told TMZ Sports (h/t Toby Morgan of Seconds Out) that he has a plan that ends with him holding a championship belt again.

"We’ve got a lot of fights lined up for this year, two for sure but three maybe. It’s going to be a great fight whilst it lasts but this warm up, tune up, I’m taking it serious and once completing the task then we move on into the limelight of the bigger and better fights. This is the tester,” he said ahead of his bout against Herndon.

There's no doubt that Herndon was a tuneup. However, it's hard to know how much we can really take from this win.

Wilder knocked out Robert Helenius in 2022 after back-to-back losses to Tyson Fury only to follow it up with back-to-back losses to Joseph Parker and Zhang.

This could be the first step in Wilder making a remarkable comeback at 39 years old. It could also be just a small reminder of who the prolific puncher once was before he proves he should be thinking of retirement.