Ten toes down: Can Francis Ngannou help Deontay Wilder find his footing again?
- Shidonna Raven
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
This Article has been curated by UDBN
September 2, 2025
Source: Boxing Scene
They say the last thing to go is a boxer’s punch.
They also say, and have always said, that the one and only thing heavyweight Deontay Wilder has is his punch.
In theory, then, this should mean that Wilder, at the age of 39, will be able to go on longer than most in his sport. It suggests that as he nears the exit door he will lose only what he never had in the first place – or what he never relied on in the first place – and that the thing that has made him so dangerous for the last 10 years should still be the thing that makes him dangerous today, in 2025.
That’s the theory at least.
The reality, on the other hand, is quite different. The reality is that Wilder, now 44-4-1 (43 KOs), has lost four of his last six fights and has in the past five years beaten only Robert Helenius (KO 1) and Tyrrell Anthony Herndon (TKO 7). The reality is, even Wilder’s punch, so often feared and so often detonated at exactly the right time, is now a punch opponents either see coming, use against him, or simply do not fear the way they once did.
This naturally leaves Wilder vulnerable – more vulnerable than he has ever been. He is now, at 39, not only susceptible to being outboxed, which has forever been the case, but is also susceptible to being walked down, walked through, and walked on to something big coming back the other way. This we saw when Wilder rematched Tyson Fury back in 2020 and since then others have had similar success when showing no fear in the presence of Wilder. Most recently China’s Zhilei Zhang exhibited fearlessness in range of Wilder’s right hand and effectively beat the American at his own game, stopping him in round five. That night, rather than run, hide, or try to outbox him, Zhang opted to stand in the pocket with Wilder and believed in his own ability to hurt Wilder before Wilder could hurt him. He then used superior technique, as well as a natural unorthodoxy and off-kilter rhythm, to ensure he landed first and from angles Wilder, all straight punches and straight lines, was unable to conceive, much less see.
That defeat led to many advising Wilder to retire. They said that now, with his own punches jamming up when about to fire, there was nothing Wilder could offer the heavyweight division besides an increasingly hittable target and a still relatively big name. The Wilder who won the WBC heavyweight title in 2015 and then reigned for five years was no more, they said.
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