{"id":124580,"date":"2025-05-23T06:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T06:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/124580\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T06:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T06:44:08","slug":"deontay-wilder-no-longer-feared-says-hearn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/124580\/","title":{"rendered":"Deontay Wilder: No Longer Feared, Says Hearn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn says fighters no longer fear<\/strong> Deontay Wilder, as his career has sunk in the last five years. He says the former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) is a classic example of a \u201cfighter losing his way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearn doesn\u2019t say why 39-year-old Deontay\u2019s career has evaporated since 2020, but it\u2019s logical to assume that his becoming wealthy, amassing a fortune of $30 million<\/strong> from his three fights with Tyson Fury, had something to do with it.<\/p>\n

The other part is that he was overrated, much like Fury and Anthony Joshua. Fans saw all three as great talents, but it was all smoke and mirrors created by matchmaking. Promoters can make any fighter great with the proper guidance.<\/p>\n

Deontay has lost four out of his last five fights since 2020, and will be trying to rejuvenate his career against Tyrrell Anthony <\/strong>Herndon<\/strong> next month on June 27 at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas. Few fans have heard of Herndon (24-5, 15 KOs), which shows how far Wilder\u2019s career has fallen. For him to be matched against this level of opposition by his promoters, it reeks of desperation to keep him going.<\/p>\n

Hearn: Wilder\u2019s Lost Fear<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a fight that I rule out, but people don\u2019t give Wilder much shot against AJ right now, but hopefully, he can start looking good again,\u201d said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype<\/a> about whether there\u2019s a chance for the Deontay Wilder vs. Anthony Joshua fight this late in their careers.<\/p>\n

Deontay turns 40 in October, hasn\u2019t won a fight in three years, and is coming off back-to-back defeats. At this point, he might not win his next fight against little-known Tyrrell Herndon on June 27th. It\u2019s questionable whether Wilder\u2019s problems are a result of age, deterioration from his three fights against Tyson Fury, or soft living from becoming one of the super-rich.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, we talk about fighters losing their way.<\/strong> There\u2019s a great example. It\u2019s funny how people can be so fearful of a fighter, and then all of a sudden, have no fear whatsoever,\u201d said Hearn.<\/p>\n

Deontay stopped being feared by fighters after his seventh-round knockout loss to the slapper Fury in 2020. That guy isn\u2019t known as a power puncher, but he was able to bat Wilder around the ring all night in that fight.<\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t take that version of Fury and put him in with any of the top heavyweights in this era and expect him to do the same thing. That was a prime version of Fury, but he had the perfect opponent for him to look better than he was.<\/p>\n

Deontay was never a good heavyweight, but was positioned to capture the WBC heavyweight title by being matched against the vulnerable fighter Bermane Stiverne. Deontay then milked his WBC title by defending it against weak opposition for five years before losing it to Fury in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody now would fear fighting Deontay Wilder, whereas at a point, everyone thought, \u2018Oh my God, this guy is the biggest puncher in the history of the sport.\u2019 Now, everyone wants to fight him,\u201d said Hearn.<\/p>\n

The younger fighters don\u2019t fear Wilder or the 35-year-old Anthony Joshua, both considered old fossils. If Hearn took AJ out of the protective mode, he\u2019d be food for most of the top-tier heavyweights in the division. Obviously, He won\u2019t let that happen, but that\u2019s what would happen. Joshua is just as beatable now as Wilder, and feared by no one.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia Over Talent<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf he keeps winning, maybe people can talk about that fight again,\u201d said Hearn about a match between Deontay and Joshua.<\/p>\n

Wilder isn\u2019t going to keep winning unless he\u2019s matched against terrible opposition. At this point, the only way a fight between him and AJ happens is if it\u2019s done for the same reason Joshua\u2019s likely clash against Fury. In other words, for money to give sentimental older fans the fights they wanted to see all these years.<\/p>\n

Joshua-Wilder and Joshua-Fury fights will not resonate with younger fans because they don\u2019t view these guys as cutting-edge heavyweights. They see them as old relics, like the Ford Model T automobile.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb Deontay Wilder: No Longer Feared, Says Hearn<\/p>\n

Last Updated on 05\/22\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn says fighters no longer fear Deontay Wilder, as his career has sunk in the last five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[55358,1935,12509,55357,4332,4331,55359,55356,6506,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-124580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-5v5","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-fight-night","11":"tag-kingdom-arena","12":"tag-mark-robinson","13":"tag-matchroom-boxing","14":"tag-queensberry","15":"tag-riyadh","16":"tag-saudi-arabia","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114555798439276805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}