(Mark Robinson)
Tyson Fury will make yet another return to the ring this Saturday.
The 37-year-old Fury will end his latest retirement of 16 months when he steps through the ropes to face Arslanbek Makhmudov at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Unsurprisingly, he is not the only heavyweight champion to dust off the gloves after a period of inactivity – and he surely won’t be the last. Many heavyweight champions have hung up the gloves and chose to return to the ring for another crack at claiming a title. Some comebacks have been successful, others not so much.
Here are 10 former heavyweight champions who made a return to boxing after a stint away from the squared circle.
George Foreman
We start with the greatest of all heavyweight comebacks. George Foreman first won the heavyweight title in 1973, knocking down the then-undefeated Joe Frazier six times before stopping him in Round 2. Foreman was vicious and feared, but he would famously go on to lose his title to Muhammad Ali a year later. Following defeat to Jimmy Young in 1977, “Big George” hung up the gloves at just 28 years old.
Money would force Foreman to make a comeback a full decade later. By then an ordained minister after welcoming God into his life, Foreman would defeat Steve Zouski in his return at age 38. What followed was extraordinary. In 1994, at 45 years old, he knocked out Michael Moorer to regain the heavyweight title. Foreman, who lost on points to Evander Holyfield in 1991, finally retired in 1997 following a contentious defeat to Shannon Briggs. He was 48.
David Haye
David Haye held the lineal title and unified belts at cruiserweight in the late 2000s before making a successful run at heavyweight. He defeated Russian giant Nikolai Valuev for the WBA title in 2009 but went on to lose the belt to Wladimir Klitschko in 2011. Haye defeated Derek Chisora a year later, but in 2013, after struggles with injuries, he called it a career at age 33.
Haye returned three years later in 2016, against Mark de Mori. With a huge fight against Anthony Joshua his aim, Haye’s body failed him in back-to-back fights with Tony Bellew in 2017 and 2018. Haye was a big favorite in both contests, but he suffered injuries to his Achilles tendon in the first contest and was stopped on both occasions by Bellew.
Tyson Fury
Back in 2015, aged 27, Fury had just dethroned long-reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko. Fury held the WBA, WBO and…
2026-04-11 09:00:00
