Nelson Lopez, who promoted Deontay Wilder’s bout against Tyrell Herndon in June, said he has extended another offer to the former WBC heavyweight titleholder.
Wilder, 44-4-1 (43 KOs), stopped Herndon in seven rounds to shed rust and recover from losses in his two previous fights, to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang.
Lopez took Wilder to the Charles Kock Arena in Wichita, Kansas, and Herndon was down in rounds two and six before Wilder, now 40, was victorious.
Lopez was satisfied with how the event went.
“Absolutely, I was really happy,” said the Florida-based Lopez. “I got a little bit of critique from bringing it to Wichita and not bringing it to where everybody wanted it to be and whatever. But we put 8,000 people in a venue in Wichita, which no one thought would be possible. The sponsors were happy, Deontay was happy, the other fighters that fought were happy, and overall I was really happy with it.”
Wilder has always been linked to England’s Anthony Joshua, and there was talk of a bout with former UFC champion and boxing dabbler Francis Ngannou. Wilder said his next fight would be in another country, but Lopez is keen to work with “The Bronze Bomber” again.
“We put out another offer to keep it going,” Lopez said. “We do have another offer, an open door to offer another fight or another opportunity to work together. But there are a lot of offers out there [for Wilder]. I know there are a lot of offers [like], ‘Hey, go fight this undefeated guy for this much,’ or ‘Come here,’ like a stepping-stone kind of offer, and I think that’s not really the route he wants to go, when we’ve negotiated and talked about it. Everyone wants to see him and AJ. I think it’s one of those fights that the boxing world never got to see it; they kind of want to see that.”
But Lopez hopes that after their first time working together, Wilder would be open to doing something similar again.
“I don’t know what other offers he’s got, but I know we put in an offer to do something here in the States, same kind of style how we did the last one, possibly his hometown [Tuscaloosa, Alabama] somewhere, and sell a lot of tickets, a lot of hype, a lot of promo, and keep him active until he gets the right offer that he likes.
“We’re kind of wrapped up for this year. I was hoping we could do it before the end of the year. That was my goal. But if something was to happen, it would probably have to happen in January or February.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
