The heavyweight division has been searching for personality. Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller and Deontay Wilder have it in surplus. A fight between the Brooklyn-born Miller and the former WBC champion from Tuscaloosa, staged in New York, is the kind of matchup the division used to produce on a regular basis and now rarely does.

After Miller’s win over Lenier Pero on April 25, both Miller and promoter Eddie Hearn used their post-fight platforms to push for the bout.

Hearn Makes the Pitch

Speaking to DAZN after the Pero fight, Hearn framed Miller-Wilder as the heavyweight fight American fans have been waiting on.

“For me, when I look at the fights in the division as a promoter you want a fight with great build-up. You wanna fight with jeopardy,” Hearn said. “For me the American fight is Deontay Wilder against Jarrell Miller, run it in New York. That’s a serious, serious fight.”

A shorter version of the pitch has circulated heavily on social media: “We want to make Big Baby vs. the Bronze Bomber in New York.”

Miller Calls Wilder Out

Miller, still wearing his gold medal in the ring, addressed Wilder directly in his DAZN interview.

“I’d love to fight Tyson. You know Deontay, he pussy whoop man so you. He said a long time ago that he don’t wanna fight Big Baby because it hurt his feelings. If ya gonna shut your pie ass up and come fight me boy but we gon’ see. We’re going to see.”

Miller also said he wants to return in June on the Jaron “Boots” Ennis undercard in New York if the date works.

The Pitch on Paper

Miller, 37, fights out of Brooklyn and has spent the better part of a decade selling himself as New York’s heavyweight. Wilder, 40, owns one of the most concussive right hands in heavyweight history, with 43 of his 44 wins coming by knockout.

Both fighters have lost the aura they carried in 2020 and 2021. Wilder is 1-3 in his last four bouts, including back-to-back losses to Tyson Fury and a 2024 defeat to Zhilei Zhang in Riyadh. Miller has been derailed multiple times by failed drug tests, most notably ahead of his scheduled 2019 bout with Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden.

That history is part of the sell. Neither man is being marketed as a future undisputed champion. They are being marketed as heavyweights who hit hard and talk louder, in a sport that has spent the last several years routing its biggest fights through Saudi Arabia.

The New York Angle

New York has not hosted a major heavyweight title fight since Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr. fought at Madison Square Garden in 2019. Miller-Wilder would not be a title fight, but it would be a heavyweight main event with two recognizable names in the largest media market in the country.

Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center remain the two obvious venues. Miller has fought at both. Wilder headlined Barclays in November 2018 against Tyson Fury in a draw that drew 14,069 fans, per ESPN.

The promotional build would write itself. Miller has openly called out Wilder for years, and Wilder has historically responded to direct callouts on camera. Press conferences would carry weight without manufactured tension.

The Boxing Question

Stylistically, the fight is a clean matchup. Wilder is a one-handed puncher who has struggled when opponents make him work past the middle rounds. Miller is a pressure fighter who walks down opponents and works the body, though he has rarely faced anyone with Wilder’s single-shot power.

Miller is coming off the Pero win and a February knockout of Andy Ruiz Jr. in Riyadh. Wilder rebounded with a first-round knockout of Tyrrell Herndon in June 2025, his first win since 2022.

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Wilder is ranked No. 10 by the WBC. Miller is unranked in the WBC’s heavyweight top 15 but sits at No. 9 with the WBA, a position likely to improve after the Pero win. Both remain recognizable names in a division where name recognition still drives gates.

The Timing

The fight would have been bigger four years ago. Wilder was still WBC champion in early 2022. The economics, the stakes, and the network interest were all different.

That is true of most heavyweight matchups currently being discussed. Joshua-Wilder, Fury-Joshua, and Wilder-Ruiz all carried more weight when they were first proposed than they would today.

What Miller-Wilder offers now is a heavyweight fight in New York between two punchers who can sell tickets on personality. In a division where most major bouts are routed through Riyadh, a domestic heavyweight card with American stars at a recognizable American venue is a product the U.S. boxing market has not seen in some time.

Whether the fight gets made depends on what each side wants next. Wilder is signed with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. Miller is now aligned with Hearn and Matchroom. Both sides have publicly expressed interest in fighting the other in the past.

It is an easy fight to make.