Deontay Wilder vs. Tyrrell Herndon Live Winners and Losers, Results
The promotion was billed as "Legacy Reloaded."
And given where Deontay Wilder's career had gone lately, it was apt.
The 39-year-old was down to his last strike as it relates to his place on the big-time heavyweight landscape, which he helped rule as WBC champion from 2015 to 2020 before losing the strap in the second of three fights with Tyson Fury.
The loss to the Englishman was the first of his career and triggered a downturn that had seen him go 1-4 with three KOs in his previous five fights, placing him in a redemptive mindset entering a pay-per-view main event with Tyrrell Herndon.
Herndon was an anonymous 37-year-old with nary a significant win—and four KO losses—on his resume and would have shocked people if he'd provided anything more than nominal resistance to Wilder, who'd gone the distance in exactly one of his 43 wins.
The B/R combat team was in place to take in Wilder's return and the rest of the show from the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan. and deliver a definitive list of the event's winners and losers. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
Winner: Perception Reality
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It all depends on what you believed going into Friday night.
If you bought into the idea that Deontay Wilder was a one-sided win away from returning to heavyweight prominence, his seventh-round TKO of Tyrrell Herndon did the job.
But if you believed the ex-champ’s best days were behind him regardless of how he looked against a Midwestern trial horse, then he didn’t do much to change things.
The end came at 2:16 of Round 7 with Herndon still on his feet but having given referee Ray Corona almost no choice but to stop things given the consistent flow of one-way traffic.
Herndon was exhausted and had barely gotten up from a sixth-round sequence in which he sat on the bottom stand of ropes and touched his glove to the canvas.
He then voluntarily went to a knee early in the seventh and had heard Corona give a series of subtle warnings that he’d have to show something to keep the competition going.
He didn’t.
Instead, Wilder landed an overhand right following by a straight right that drove Herndon backward to the ropes and prompted Corona to step in even without a final knockdown to give Wilder his first win since 2022 and second since 2019.
“I think Corona was reading the body language of Herndon,” analyst Gabe Rosado said. “His body language was that he was trying to find a way out. He did him a favor. He was like, ‘OK, you don’t want to fight no more.’”
Loser: Unsatisfying Ending
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It was a fight only a hardcore fan could love. And even that was a stretch.
Light heavyweights Deon Nicholson and Devonte Williams were put in an untenable situation when the promoters decided to remove them from the co-main event position and instead put them on after the Wilder fight, in front of a largely empty arena.
Not surprisingly, it wasn’t a memorable match and ultimately ended with the once-beaten Nicholson—ranked 11th at 175 pounds by the WBA—winning by fourth-round KO.
The fighters were initially slotted to be the final bout before Wilder-Herndon and their pre-fight tale-of-the-tape graphics were shown on the broadcast, but ring announcer Lupe Contreras quickly pivoted and signaled the main-event ring walks were beginning.
That fight went on as planned and nearly all the fans left at its conclusion, leaving Nicholson and Williams to finish the show anonymously.
It didn’t help that their fight was comprehensively non-violent and featured a poor acting job in the third when Williams sagged to the floor to protest a low blow and a subsequent headshot, only to quickly rise when he realized the referee was counting instead of giving him relief time.
The sequence drew the ire of Rosado, an ex-middleweight title challenger.
“C’mon this ain’t the NBA,” Rosado said. “Theres no flopping in boxing.”
The nonsense continued into the fourth, when Williams was hit with an innocuous looking body shot, went to a knee and took the full 10 count, then immediately got up and embraced Nicholson, to the disgust of blow-by-blow man Miguel Flores.
“That was horrible. Straight up that was horrible,” Flores said. “That was ‘I’m here to collect a check.’ He looked at the ref and smiled and spit out his mouthpiece.”
Winner: Working the Crowd
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We won’t pretend it was a world-class challenge.
Nevertheless, Nico Hernandez gets full marks for delighting his people.
The Wichita-based super flyweight hadn’t fought in more than two years thanks to myriad physical and professional issues—and his return was against a 37-year-old fighter with just three wins in 19 fights—but he delivered the goods with a second-round stoppage of Robert Ledesma.
“Punches were coming from everywhere,” Rosado said. "He couldn’t defend everything.”
A bronze medalist from the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Hernandez showed quick hands and good punch variety in his brief appearance, which lasted until Ledesma was unable to rise from a body shot that yielded the second knockdown of the second round.
The official time was 1:12.
“I’m a natural it came back to me,” Hernandez said. “I’m ready to keep moving forward.”
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Loser: Sister Knows Best
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Next time, Jeff Page Jr. probably won’t listen to his sister.
The 34-year-old hadn’t been in a professional ring since 2017, but he decided to re-don the gloves after he and his relative watched last fall’s fight between Jake Paul and 58-year-old Mike Tyson and she challenged him to get back in there.
So, Page, who’d fought former light heavyweight champ Artur Beterbiev in 2014 and dropped him before ultimately losing, climbed in with sub-.500 opponent Aaron Casper, thinking he had enough muscle memory to handle the task and perhaps propel himself toward bigger things down the road.
Instead, the presumably more skilled fighter found himself out of shape and out of his element at cruiserweight, where he lost a six-round decision to Casper, who won for just the ninth time in 22 fights.
“Casper was more busy, more in tune,” Rosado said. “I think Page didn’t give himself enough time to get in the best shape, being out so long.”
Loser: Humane Officiating
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Maybe it was the glare from the lights. Or from Lateef Kayode’s bald, sweaty head.
Either way, referee Nick Berens stood by for an inordinate amount of time as Kayode, a 42-year-old with one victory since 2015, took head shot after unnecessary head shot from unbeaten heavyweight Gustavo Trujillo before his own corner finally surrendered him at 2:15 of Round 6 of a scheduled 10.
Kayode, who fought for a cruiserweight belt against then-champ Antonio Tarver in 2012, had won just four times in 10 fights since—including four KO losses—and presented little for Trujillo to be concerned with through the first five rounds, during which Berens could have stopped the fight during prolonged one-sided exchanges.
It was more of the same in the sixth, which began with Trujillo landing a hard left to the body that backed Kayode to a corner. An extended stretch in which Trujillo threw and landed dozens of punches failed to sway Berens even as Kayode wobbled from side to side and lurched backward against the ropes as the crowd groaned.
Eventually, members of the stricken fighter’s corner team waved their hands long enough to draw the official’s attention and step in to give Trujillo his eighth win and seventh KO.
“Kayode was out,” Rosado said. “It was just a matter of him throwing combinations and giving the referee no choice but to stop the fight.”
Winner: First-Time Thrills
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It won’t be a journey that ends at the Hall of Fame.
But Kansas-based featherweight Chancey Wilson will be able to tell his kids that he was a professional boxer, and he won a fight.
The 33-year-old graduated from the bare-knuckle world to the gloved ranks in Friday’s show opener and handled fellow newbie Joshua Richey by unanimous four-round decision.
It was hardly a clinic and won’t send anyone scurrying to YouTube for highlights, but the two men entertained the crowd at a still-cavernous Koch Arena with their willingness to engage and Wilson scored a second-round knockdown and carried the fight’s second half.
It was in fact their second combat encounter, following a five-rounder won by Wilson four years ago in Park City, Kan.
Two judges gave him shutout scores of 40-35 while the other had it 39-36, matching the B/R card.
Loser: Old Guys Fighting
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It wasn’t senior abuse. But it was pretty close.
A trio of old-timers—43-year-old super middleweight Andre Amaro, 42-year-old junior welterweight Jay Krupp and 40-year-old heavyweight Franklin Sparks—gave additional evidence why guys their ages aren’t typically successful in the ring while suffering quick first-round KO losses.
Amaro hadn’t fought in 13 months and encountered 19-year-old prospect Marco Romero, who quickly dispatched him with a four-punch combination that led to a knockdown and subsequently a stoppage after just 72 seconds.
Then, in the next bout, Krupp ended a 10-year absence from the ring and made it just 12 seconds longer before a pair of body shots from Jorge Carlos ended his night at 1:24 of the first.
They were followed soon after by Sparks, who arrived with three KOs in four pro wins but suffered a similar fate as the others when he was counted out on his knees at 1:43 of the first after absorbing a hard left hook to the head from John Cantrell.
It was a ninth straight win and eighth by KO for Romero, whose future appears the brightest of the three winners. He’s fought and won five times already in 2025, all by KO with none going longer than two rounds.
Full Card Results
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Deontay Wilder def. Tyrrell Herndon by KO, 2:16, Round 7
Deon Nicholson def. Devonte Williams by KO, 0:27, Round 4
Nico Hernandez def. Robert Ledesma by KO, 1:12, Round 2
Gustavo Trujillo def. Lateef Kayode by KO, 2:15, Round 6
Aaron Casper def. Jeff Page by unanimous decision (59-55, 59-55, 58-56)
Eric Valencia def. Willie Harris by KO, 0:58, Round 1
John Cantrell def. Franklin Sparks by KO, 1:43, Round 1
Jorge Carlos def. Jay Krupp by KO, 1:24, Round 1
Marco Romero def. Andre Amaro by KO, 1:12, Round 1
Chancey Wilson def. Joshua Richey by unanimous decision (40-35, 40-35, 39-36)
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