Can Wilder really get back to the top with Chisora encounter?

A bronze medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he turned professional later that year and went on to win the WBC heavyweight title, which he defended 10 times.

Tomorrow night, Wilder will have his 50th outing in the paid ranks when he faces Derek Chisora , who is also making his 50th appearance, at the O2 Arena in London , live and exclusive on DAZN PPV .

Here, DAZN News looks at whether the former champion is capable of making it back to the top of boxing’s glamour division.

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"He thinks it's just me retiring after this; he's wrong!"

Watch: Chisora makes retirement promise to Wilder (0.42)

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Wilder (44-4-1) may be 40 years old now, but you don’t have to go back too far to when he was the most feared man in boxing.

‘The Bronze Bomber’ ruled as WBC champion for just over five years, and he terrorised the division with his devastating power up until losing his crown to Tyson Fury via a seventh-round TKO in their 2020 rematch.

Wilder then lost the trilogy match with Fury the following year, but not without dropping the latter twice that night, and his famous power is what has kept him in the heavyweight title conversation since.

Even though he has now lost four of his last six fights, the man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has still stopped a remarkable 43 of his 44 victims, and that stunning knockout ratio stands up to anyone in the history of the sport.

They say the last thing a fighter loses is his power, and if that is the case, then Wilder is still a man to be feared by all. However, there has been very little evidence of that being the case in recent times.

The American got back on the winning trail when halting Tyrrell Anthony Herndon last time out in June 2025 , but the latter had a record of 24-5 and didn’t represent anything like world-class opposition.

Also, Wilder didn’t look particularly great in registering a seventh-round TKO against moderate opposition, and the bout left more questions than answers about his ambitions of reaching the summit again.

Before that, he lost back-to-back outings with a pair of lacklustre performances. Joseph Parker outboxed Wilder and never looked in danger of being hurt by his opponent’s right hand, while Zhilei Zhang was undeterred from marching forward before stopping Wilder in the fifth round of their showdown.

Does he still have the power?

You have to go back to October 2022 for the last time Wilder looked dangerous, when he halted Robert Helenius with a stunning one-punch KO as he bounced back from the Fury defeats in fine style.

It hasn’t necessarily been a case of Wilder losing his power overnight, as it may still be there if he lands the right shot, but he has really struggled to let the big right-hand go, let alone find a home for it.

He has been fighting like a man who knows what he wants to do, but his body isn’t reacting to what his mind is telling it, and he simply doesn’t look like he can pull the trigger anymore.

It may just be a classic case of Father Time catching up with him, and he needs to prove that isn’t the case this weekend if he’s going to be considered a worthy opponent for either of the two current champions – Fabio Wardley or Oleksandr Usyk.

The fact that the latter was earlier this year talking about fighting Wilder is encouraging for the American, and the pair were even rumoured to be fighting this spring.

However, Wilder must show some signs that he still has what it takes to compete at the top level with a good performance this weekend.

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Wilder needs a big performance

Anything other than an impressive victory in London tomorrow will not suffice for Wilder.

After all, Chisora may be on a three-fight winning streak. He is 42 years old and has 13 losses on his CV, so only a dominant knockout victory will be enough to put Wilder back in the talk of a title shot.

Even then, he may need another good win before he can be taken seriously at the top table again, and, on recent evidence, a victory is far from guaranteed against Chisora.

The Briton is the favourite heading into battle tomorrow. He has a home advantage too, so we could be witnessing the last stand of a once formidable champion.

Defeat would most likely spell the end for Wilder, and even a big victory may not be enough to banish the concerns that his best days are a long way behind him.

So, can he really make it back to the top? Only the most dedicated Wilder fans could answer ‘yes’ to that question right now.

Watch Chisora vs. Wilder only on DAZN

Derek Chisora and Deontay Wilder square off this Saturday, April 4, exclusively on DAZN PPV. Buy as a one-off PPV or get this, Wardley vs. Dubois (May 9), and Usyk vs Verhoeven (May 23) PPVs all included with a DAZN Ultimate Tier subscription for £22.99 / $44.99 per month. 

For more information, pricing, and to buy, click here.