Down and out former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and journeyman Curtis Harper have reportedly signed contracts for a fight on April 26th to be shown on BLK Prime from Atlanta.
Wilder vs. Harper
Harper, 36, has some pop in his punches, which makes him a threat to beating the gunshy, chinny ‘Bronze Bomber’ Wilder. A knockout loss to Harper would have to be seen as the end for Deontay. Losing to this level of a fighter would signal that the Alabama native isn’t capable of being a major player in the division.
Lance Pugmire reports the 39-year-old Wilder (43-4-1, 42 KOs) and Harper (18-11, 12 KOs) have inked contracts for this fight. It’s a desperate situation for Deontay, as he’s not won a fight in three years since 2022 and has been beaten in four out of his last five fights.
Many fans feel Wilder should retire already. From 2012 to 2018, he looked like a shadow of the fighter he was at the zenith of his career.
In the towering 6’7″ Bronze Bomber’s last fight, he was viciously knocked out in the fifth round by the two-time Olympian Zhilei Zhang on June 1st, 2024, in Riyadh.
Turki Al-Sheikh hadn’t given up on Wilder despite failing his previous fight on one of his Riyadh cards in a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to Joseph Parker on December 23, 2023. Interestingly, Deontay wasn’t included in Turki’s massive February 22nd event in Riyadh. Has he given up on him?
Deontay looked timid and afraid to throw punches in his losses to Zhang and Parker. He mostly held back, posing as if to throw but not letting his hands go. The question is whether that’s due to his trainer, Malik Scott, or his age. It also could be that Wilder’s two knockout losses to Tyson Fury made him gunshy, afraid to throw for fear of being countered. That’s how Fury beat him.
Harper’s Big Shot
Harper was busy in 2024, winning four fights against obscure second-tier opposition. In 2023, he fought three times, losing to Richard Torrez, Guido Vianello and Damian Knyba. Harper made it to the eighth round against the heavy puncher Torrez before being stopped.
If he can land that long against Wilder, he’s got an excellent chance of beating him because it doesn’t take much to knock out the Bronze Bomber nowadays. The slapper Fury stopped him twice, and he couldn’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag.
