The final weekend of June 2025 in the sport of Boxing was highlighted by two events that for different reasons drew significant interest. First on June 27th, it was the return of former WBC World Heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in Wichita, KS as he faced veteran Tyrell Hearndon in a fight scheduled for ten rounds. In the interest of full disclosure with the reader, this fight, which was broadcast worldwide by digital subscription streaming entertainment platform BLKPrime, was riddled with technical issues, which unfortunately necessitated a delay in this column’s release due to this observer being unable to access the broadcast. While this unfortunately is not the first time that the upstart network/platform has had issues broadcasting their Boxing events after initially making a splash upon its entry into the sport just a few years ago, I felt it important to state not only why there was a delay in this column’s release, but also to illustrate that much like several folks who reached out to yours truly across social media platforms as this fight took place to share their experiences with me, those of us who cover the sport, are at times in the same boat as a fan might be when it comes to technical issues that can befuddle a broadcaster/network’s ability to successfully air events. Although the issues, which seem to be an ongoing problem with regard to BLKPrime, as the network has seen several starts and stops since their initial entry into the sport, is likely worthy of a column of its own, it is not a subject I want to spend too much time on at the present time.
The delay for yours truly notwithstanding, as well as the justifiable frustration amongst fans who tried to tune in on fight night, it was a fight that symbolized what could be a new beginning for the former World Heavyweight champion in Wilder, who was looking for his first win since a first round knockout of Robert Helenius in October 2022 and was coming off two losses, the most recent a brutal knockout loss at the hands of Zhilei Zhang in June of last year.
If one is honest, they would say first that this fight was designed for Wilder to have an edge with the goal of trying to restore confidence after those two setbacks,but quite frankly, this was likely also used as an evaluation of sorts by Wilder and his team to see what he has left. Although the knockout at the hands of Zhang was the most recent setback, one needs to keep in mind that Wilder has sustained punishment throughout his career, most notably in his trilogy with Tyson Fury in which Fury, who also suffered punishment over the three encounters, was able to score two knockout wins. After openly questioning whether Wilder’s career had come to an end after the loss to Zhang in a fight where he looked lethargic and was dominated by Zhang before being knocked out in the fifth round, I did not know what to expect going into this fight.
In 30 years of writing about combat sports with Boxing as my primary, this observer has covered and written about countless fighters who I felt had come to a point where their best days were behind them. I often hesitate to use the term “Shot Fighter" when such situations occur because there are occasions where, despite how a fighter might look in one fight or over a stretch of several bouts where the results indicate a decline, some fighters are able to bounce back. Though I approached this fight with an open mind, I would be lying if I said I felt that the answer would be established in one fight as to whether Wilder could be one of those fighters to do so.
The reason for this is his opponent Tyrell Hearndon, a veteran of twenty-nine professional bouts leading up to this fight had a decent record in earning twenty-four wins, but those victories came against relatively unknown opposition and seemingly any time Hearndon attempted to step up in competition, he has come up short. Perhaps another reason I felt that an answer regarding Wilder would not necessarily come in this fight was the knowledge that Wilder is among the most devastating punchers in Boxing history with a near perfect career knockout percentage. Unless Hearndon were able to provide what some would call an unlikely test out of the gate, it would be difficult to surmise where Wilder was at given that he had forty-two knockouts in his forty-three career wins and had the capability to end a fight at any moment.
There was one thing, however, that stood out to me when the fight began. To sum it up in a word, “Patience." The patience of Deontay Wilder. Despite his devastating punching power, Wilder has never been known as the most technical fighter and there have been times throughout his career where he has relied on that power perhaps too much, with mixed results. As one who has covered Wilder since his Olympic days where he won a Bronze medal in 2008, this was the first time I can recall seeing Wilder in such a relaxed state in simply being patient. One aspect that was also new at least in terms of degree in which it was used was Wilder’s jab. From the outset Wilder worked behind his jab maintaining a distance with it where the conditions of combat were favorable to him.
While there were times where Wilder would throw occasional wide, looping punches, he generally relied on his jab and kept Hearndon on the end of his jab. It was this approach by the former world champion that led to Wilder scoring a knockdown of Herndon with a short left hook to the head that countered him as he attempted to press forward. Although a short knockdown where he was able to catch his opponent off balance, this was not the power first type of approach that has been identifiable throughout Wilder’s career.
A calculated, measured approach that Wilder stayed consistent throughout this fight. As the fight progressed Wilder began also landing his trademark right hand, gradually breaking Herndon down, scoring a second knockdown in round six before ultimately getting a stoppage in the seventh round.
An impressive performance marked more by the approach to victory than the fact that Wilder gained his forty-third knockout in forty-four career wins. What is next remains to be seen, but the key will be for Wilder to stay active and continue not only rebuilding his standing in the Heavyweight division, but also continuing to polish and refine the more technical approach he implemented in this fight, which could make him even more of a threat to the upper echelon of the division if he continues to win and gets back in contention.
This leads us to the second half of this column, a look at the Cruiserweight bout that took place in Anaheim, CA on June 28th that saw social media influencer turned aspiring boxer Jake Paul meet former WBC Middleweight world champion Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. in a scheduled ten round bout, which was seen worldwide on DAZN Pay-Per-View. Those who have read this observer’s previous coverage of Jake Paul’s career up to this point know that I have openly questioned whether one can establish not only a legitimate Boxing career, but more specifically, get into position to challenge for a world championship by taking an unconventional route by fighting either people with little to no Boxing experience such as fellow influencers, or athletes from other sports such as basketball or the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, or as recently as last November when Paul scored a victory over a 58 year old Hall of Famer in Mike Tyson, who had not competed in an official fight in twenty years prior to that event, and not by facing fighters who are working their way up towards prospect/contender status with an eye towards fighting for a world championship.
Much as was the case prior to his sharing the ring with Tyson, there was criticism of this bout primarily because Chavez though in his 40’s was years removed from competitive action and was only competing for the second time at Cruiserweight following a return to the ring last year after being off for nearly three years. What resulted did not quell the criticism.
For eight rounds of the scheduled ten, Paul faced little resistance from Chavez, who chose to sporadically throw any punches and to be frank, moved around the ring with his guard up to more or less serve as a moving heavy bag as Paul put round after round in the bank. It was only towards the end of round eight and into the final two rounds that Chavez began to open up and to his credit put pressure on Paul and was able to connect more than occasionally with a few solid punches. To Paul's credit he withstood the blows well and held on for a convincing ten round unanimous decision victory.
Quite frankly, there is not much one can write or analyze about a fight that resembles a workout or a light sparring session for 80% of the fight. Paul, however, did what he had to do and has been officially added to the World Boxing Association's Cruiserweight rankings at number fourteen. While that will open both the WBA and Paul to more criticism and keeping in mind that regardless of what one might think of Paul as a fighter at this stage, he has proven to be a solid promoter within the sport. Having said this, the period of these type of curiosity events has passed and if Paul wants to finally silence the criticism, he needs to fight fighters who are at or near him in the rankings. If he can continue to win and work his way up either through the WBA or through another sanctioning organization, the criticism will stop and he will earn the respect of even the most jaded amongst Boxing fans, experts and those of us who cover the sport, but it is time for the standards of the sport in which fighters get into position to fight for a world title to be respected.
“And That's The Boxing Truth."
UPDATE: While this column was in preparation for publication, it was reported by various news outlets including ABC News here in the United States that Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. was arrested by federal authorities in the days following his loss to Jake Paul.and is facing several criminal charges and deportation to his native Mexico. Chavez and his team have denied any wrongdoing. For more detailed information about this ongoing story refer to ABC News at the following link.
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