Deontay Wilder made his return to the boxing ring in June.
The 39-year-old stopped the unheralded Tyrrell Herndon in seven rounds at the Charles Koch Arena in Kansas, ending a poor run of form that had seen Wilder lose four of his last five fights.
Those defeats included back-to-back knockout losses to Tyson Fury, along with a dominant points defeat to Joseph Parker, and then another brutal stoppage at the hands of Zhilei Zhang.
Wilder was once the long-time WBC heavyweight champion, holding the belt for over five years and making 10 defences in the process, claiming knockout wins over the likes of Luis Ortiz, Dominic Breazeale, Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola.
Following his win over Herndon, ‘The Bronze Bomber’ is now targeting bigger names, with fighters such as Anthony Joshua and Fabio Wardley mentioned as potential opponents for Wilder.
One of his former foes has urged him to forget about those plans and hang up the gloves though, as Fury explained in a media scrum that watching how Wilder performed against Herndon was ‘sad to see’ and someone close to him needs to save him from himself.
“I didn’t see the full fight, but I did see a clip. I said ‘please somebody stop this man from his own self. He’s a shadow of his former glory.’ I know it’s hard to hear that, but at 40-years-old, the three fights with me done him. Completely ended his career.”
Fury himself looks set to make a return to the ring in 2026, having announced his retirement in January following back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk.