Fighting for the first time in more than a year, Tuscaloosa’s Deontay Wilder scored a seventh-round TKO over Tyrrell Herndon on Friday night.

The 39-year-old heavyweight put Herndon on the canvas in the second and sixth rounds, and the referee stopped the fight with 2:16 remaining in the seventh round after Wilder landed a pair of hard rights at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

“I know I didn’t give everybody what they truly wanted to see,” Wilder said in an in-ring interview, “but we going to get better and better as we get going. This is a new beginning for me, so we’re striving to be better and better each day to give people what they want.”

Friday night’s victory boosted Wilder’s record to 44-4-1, with 40 knockouts. Herndon dropped to 24-6.

“The Bronze Bomber” captured the WBC world heavyweight championship in 2015 and defended it 10 times. He lost the belt to Tyson Fury in 2020 after the two had fought to a draw in 2018. Before losing to Fury, Wilder’s record was 42-0-1.

Wilder’s career had stumbled since then, starting with a loss in the rematch with Fury, and until Friday night, he hadn’t fought since losing to Zhilel Zhang on June 1, 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On Friday night, Wilder scored his first victory since a first-round TKO of Robert Helenius on Oct. 15, 2022.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.