WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder is driving around in a Hummer and sports cars, leaving his beer delivery truck days far behind. He watched the Super Bowl from the stands instead of his couch and made his rounds at the NBA All-Star game, too.
His decade-long journey from community college dropout to keg hauler to boxing celebrity was cemented with his unanimous decision over Bermane Stiverne on Jan. 17. He became the first American to capture a piece of the heavyweight title since Shannon Briggs in 2006. It moved him to 33-0 after winning the previous 32 fights via knockouts within the first four rounds.
The Tuscaloosa, Alabama, native's next goal is to try to knock off Wladimir Klitschko as the world's top heavyweight and ultimately restore boxing's once-pre-eminent division to its American heyday, most recently with Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield on top.
"I'm not going nowhere no time soon," he said in a recent interview. "I'm not losing no time soon, or ever till I retire. That (Klitschko) fight's going to definitely happen, and I'm looking forward to it. That's something I'm super excited about and very confident in it when it happens."