Will Wladimir Klitschko make a heavyweight boxing comeback in 2025?

Former heavyweight champion of the world Wladimir Klitschko could be primed to make a return to the sport in 2025 as he seeks to become the oldest blue-riband division champion of all-time, and Boxing News writer Shaun Brown takes a look at whether this would be a good or bad idea for the Ukrainian great.

Boxing hasn’t had a chance to catch its breath in 2025.

Fight announcements, speculation, signings and retirements are all part and parcel of the weekly cycle of stories, but Turki Alalshikh’s involvement in the sport has seen everything ramp up a notch.

Big stories break more frequently than I can remember and another that Alalshikh hopes for is the return of former heavyweight king, Wladimir Klitschko.

When did Wladimir Klitschko last fight?

This March the Ukrainian will celebrate his 49th birthday, and on 29th April it will be eight years since the former blue-riband division ace last threw a punch in anger.

That night at Wembley Stadium, however, will never be forgotten.

It had already been 17 months since ‘Dr Steelhammer’ fought prior to facing Anthony Joshua.

Another Brit, Tyson Fury, had bamboozled Klitschko with mind games and a boxing IQ which left him befuddled, deflated and dethroned in Germany, earning 'The Gypsy King' the unified heavyweight championship in November 2015.

But against AJ, the one last hurrah from the Ukrainian was a memorable one.

Then 40 years of age, he proved the theory that power is the last thing to leave a fighter was correct when he dropped the 2012 Olympic Gold Medallist in round six having being down to the canvas himself a few minutes earlier.

The shootout ended in the 11th and penultimate session when Joshua pinned his opponent in the corner and never let him out.

When did Wladimir Klitschko retire?

Four months later, in August 2017, Klitschko bid farewell to a career which brought him an Olympic Gold medal in 1996 and multiple world heavyweight titles, including a seven-year reign as a unified champion.

Fighter’s cancelling their retirement plans to return to the ring is a familiar boxing tale, though.

Sugar Ray Leonard retired on several occasions, Tyson Fury another. Others include Floyd Mayweather, Erik Morales, Larry Holmes, Sugar Ray Robinson and George Foreman.

Coincidentally, it’s Foreman who is the reason behind Turki Alalshikh’s thinking to get Klitschko to lace up the gloves once again this year.

The American's knockout of Michael Moorer in November 1994 not only shocked the sporting world but placed ‘Big George’ in the history books.

Seven years earlier the former heavyweight champion ended his 10-year absence from the sport for a second stint, before going on to become the oldest heavyweight champion in history, at the age of 45!

Who could Wladimir Klitschko fight?

Klitschko would eclipse Foreman's achievement by four years if he was to don the gloves and win another world title this year - becoming champion at a remarkable 49-years-old.

However, his potential options are not only thin but dangerous, too.

His compatriot and friend Oleksandr Usyk holds three of the four belts and this week revealed he plans to fight two more times before retiring. Neither include Klitschko.

This leaves Daniel Dubois, the current IBF champion, who has a tricky assignment this month against Joseph Parker in Riyadh.

Dubois is in a rich vein of form with wins over Jarrell Miller, Filip Hrgovic and Anthony Joshua making him the number two heavyweight in the world.

The Londoner does not possess the guile and craft of Usyk but he trumps the king when it comes to power. The 27-year-old is nicknamed ‘Dynamite’ for good reason.

With 24 fights under his belt Dubois has 22 wins, with 21 ending inside the distance.

His muscular frame isn’t just for vanity or a Men’s Health front cover, it carries a whack from either hand as Anthony Joshua will testify to having yo-yo’d off the canvas four times during his defeat to Dubois last year.

Joshua was to Dubois what Klitschko was to Joshua.

The ageing former champion's punch resistance had gone, but he still carried plenty power to keep his opponent on their toes.

If Klitschko is to return this year the likelihood is it will be against Dubois or Parker.

The heralded heavyweight veteran has attended some recent boxing events in the Middle East, and is, by all accounts, still in terrific shape for a man approaching 50.

But putting him in with a young, fearless, knockout artist is purely a money-making exercise and a good story for the media to write about.

Health must come first! Stay retired, Wladimir.