Tyler Howard ‘extremely confident’ of victory against Eric Priest

Middleweight Tyler “Herc” Howard will get another chance to prove that he is no stepping stone when he fights undefeated Eric Priest on January 23 at the Commerce Casino and Hotel in Commerce, California. 

Howard, 30, trains in Houston with Bobby Benton and his father, Eric Howard, who is a former fighter. Tyler’s last fight wasn’t the result he wanted. He lost a unanimous decision to undefeated 2020 U.S. Olympian Troy Isley. It was Howard’s second loss in his last three fights, a run that dates back to 2021. 

“Obviously, Eric is a great fighter. Anybody that signed with Golden Boy, Top Rank, Matchroom or any of these big promoters, they’re very good fighters, all of them. We feel extremely confident that we’re going to be victorious,” Howard said. “[Priest is] very similar to Raul Salomon. I don’t think he’s as strong as Salomon, but his hands are a little faster.”

Howard defeated Salomon (at the time 12-1) in August 2023 via majority decision. Before that came a loss to Ian Green. Howard, now 20-2 (11 KOs), finds motivation in his most recent defeat against Isley.

“I was disappointed. Just looking back on it, I feel like I beat myself,” Howard said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow as a competitor. It’s a lot different if you put forth your best effort and come up short.”

Benton believes that the loss will be fuel to the fire. 

“Obviously, we didn’t get to win, but he did some good stuff,” Benton said. “He could have done a little bit more. He felt like he could have done more too. So that’s a good thing.”

Despite Priest’s  record of 14-0 (8 KOs), Howard is curious about the young fighter’s punching power. On paper, Howard is the most distinguished fighter Priest has fought. 

“It doesn’t really look like Eric is that big of a puncher,” Howard said. “I don’t really think he’s going to have any more power than Troy did. He’s got fast hands. He’s got good skill. But it is two totally different levels. I think that Troy has beat four or five guys that would beat Eric at this point.”

Benton is hopeful that Howard learns from his last fight and doesn’t have regrets afterward. 

“Hopefully this time, he’ll let it hang a little bit more,” Benton said. “The plan was to get busy about the fourth and fifth round [in the last fight], but Isley was smart. He was a hard guy to hit, and he’s a good fighter.”

Howard’s team is small. It ‘s just Benton and Eric Howard, who put 20 years into raising the fighter.

“I know that they have my best interest at heart. They don’t care about me just on a boxing level,” Tyler said. “They care about me on a personal level, and that’s important because boxing is just a short period in a fighter’s life. Say you have a great boxing career, maybe 15 solid years. Say a boxer retires at 35. If the average age expectancy is 80, they still have 45 years of your life left.

“So, you’ve got to have someone in your life that cares about your life outside of boxing,” Howard said. “Obviously, my father, he’s my father, so I think that speaks for itself. But it is the same with Bobby.”

Priest is 26 and now trains in Los Angeles with Julian Chua. He signed with Golden Boy Promotions in 2023 and fought twice in 2024, with his last fight a unanimous decision victory over Luka Lozo in August. 

As for Howard, he fought Isley in November and was back in the gym with the fire to prove himself. Howard smiled as he said: “I sparred 10 rounds with four different guys a couple of days ago. I’m about to go around five miles as soon as me and you get off the phone. I’ll be ready to fight.”