The Return of Deontay Wilder
- Matthew Brown
- Jun 26
- 3 min read
06/26/2025
After more than a year away from the spotlight, Deontay Wilder is back—and he’s not coming back quietly.
On Friday, June 27, the “Bronze Bomber” steps into the ring against Tyrrell Herndon at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. The heavyweight clash will stream live on PPV.com, marking Wilder’s highly anticipated return to the sport that made him a global knockout sensation.
But don’t call it a comeback.
“This is not a comeback. We ain’t coming back for shit,” Wilder told Brunch Boxing in an exclusive interview. “We have overcome, but we ain’t coming back. Because the old me is dead and gone. This is the return.”
Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) isn’t fighting for fame. He’s not fighting for critics. And for the first time in his career, he’s not even fighting for everyone else. He’s fighting for himself.
“I’m back because I got unfinished business,” Wilder said. “You know, it’s a lot of things has happened to me which has kept me from reaching my end goal to boxing. And I just can’t let these things interfere with me. I had to go through the trials and tribulations of it, but I’m still here. I can’t give up, I can’t quit. It’s just not in me. I must complete what I started, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how bumpy the road may become, you know what I mean? I gotta continue to go.”
Once defined by his devastating right hand and electrifying entrances, Wilder now brings something else into the ring: clarity. “At this point, I’m selfish,” he said. “Beginning, starting, doing all this stuff—I did it for others. I took care of a lot of people. Some appreciated and many didn’t. But at this point in time, it’s all about me.”
The mission is simple: become heavyweight champion once more. Wilder has tasted the top of the mountain before, holding the WBC heavyweight title for five years and knocking out nearly every man he’s faced. But this version of Wilder believes the best is yet to come.
“Still agile, mobile and hostile,” Wilder says with a grin. He’s focused, driven, and sharper than he’s been in years—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
“I gotta put this last remaining of whatever I got going on in boxing—I gotta do it for me,” he said. “I gotta see what that feels like when I do it for myself.”
His opponent, Tyrrell Herndon (24-5, 15 KOs), has been making headlines for his trash talk, but Wilder couldn’t be less bothered.
“He have to, at this moment in time, convince himself, hype himself up, do whatever he gotta do to motivate himself that ‘This is the decision I made to get in there with a killer and I must suffer the consequences behind my actions no matter what whatever the outcome may be,’” Wilder said.
Herndon may be on a bit of a winning streak, but he’s never faced anyone with Wilder’s level of power—or pressure. And Wilder seems to relish the idea of reminding the world of what he can still do with just one clean shot.
“This is the return,” Wilder declared. “Mind is better, my health is better. I’m physically, mentally and emotionally ready. But don’t just take my word for it. You hear me? Don’t just take my word for this. Watch me in action. I’ll see y’all soon.”
This isn’t about redemption—it’s about evolution.
Deontay Wilder may have lost time, momentum, and even some of the voices that once hyped him. But he hasn’t lost himself. And on Friday night in Wichita, Kansas, Wilder plans to prove—emphatically—that he’s not just back.
He’s here for what’s his.
And as always with a Deontay Wilder fight, above all else—don’t blink.
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