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Deontay Wilder stands today as the former heavyweight world champion and one of American boxing's biggest stars.

However, it's fair to say that it's not always been this way for the Bronze Bomber who, eight years ago, was far less known and more reckless as a result.

Deontay Wilder travelled to LA and beat up internet troll Charlie Zelenoff back in 2014…

Wilder said Zelenoff racially abused him and made threats about his daughter. pic.twitter.com/fnNohDnnns

In May 2014, Wilder famously travelled to Los Angeles for a gym fight with internet troll Charlie Zelenoff, who directed vile abuse at him and challenged him.

Fresh off a win over his now-trainer Malik Scott to improve his record to 31-0 (31 KOs), the American accepted Zelenoff's challenge and flew across the country to deal with the situation.

Wilder arrived at the gym and had Zelenoff sign a legal waiver assuring that he wouldn’t sue for any damages, before then ruthlessly battering him around the gym.

The fact he was wearing two right-handed gloves mattered not, as the troll discovered the difference between himself and a future heavyweight world champion.

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Explaining the incident later on, Wilder told ESNews: “You can be a critic and say certain things, but there’s a limit.

“He took it to a whole ‘nother level. One thing I don’t condone is racism and he brought racism to the table.

“He [talked about] duct-taping my daughter’s mouth and when he said that I visualised him actually doing it and it upset me.

“And then he said he’s gonna kill me, murder me. Those three things, man, I was overboard. When it’s like that, I wanna see you.”

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When uploaded, the clip inevitably went viral, and was Wilder's most viewed fight for several years before his historic trilogy with Tyson Fury.

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