Yuri Foreman planning early 2013 comeback

Yuri Foreman, former WBA light middleweight champion, is currently in training to make a comeback in 2013. He planned to make a comeback Nov. 17th but the entire card was cancelled due to damages sustained by Hurricane Sandy. Foreman hasn't fought since his corner retirement against Pawel Wolak after 6 rounds in March, 2011. His advisor Bruce Silverglade has said that Yuri was "physically fine" for the Wolak bout and "it wasn't [his leg]," which was injured in his previous bout against Miguel Cotto. Mentally, however, Yuri was still mourning the loss of his longtime manager Murray Wilson. Silverglade claims Foreman lost the desire to fight.

Fortunately it appears time has healed whatever did trouble Foreman. On the latest Wednesday night edition of ATG Radio Foreman said, "If I had some doubts, I would not make a comeback...It's one of the worst sports to be in if you have a slight doubt." But while self-belief has lead Foreman to return to the ring, he will not make the same mistake Ricky Hatton did and match himself tough before he allows the ring rust to wear off. In fact he's likely to take a few 6-8 round fights and not chance an inferior fighter breaking him down over the long haul.

But the problem for Foreman now is actually securing fights. Since his contract with Top Rank expired Yuri is now a free agent. He's thinking about going with local promoters this time around and has begun discussions with Kathy Duva to get on the Jan 19th Main Events card headlined by Sergey Kovalev vs Gabriel Campillo. NBC Sports will definitely televise Kovalev-Campillo but usually has time to air a few undercards. Foreman just might be in one of them.

Ryan Bivins is a staff writer for BadLeftHook. You can contact him on twitter (@sweetboxing) or through email (rgbivins@gmail.com).