Deontay Wilder, Daniel Jacobs looking at fall return dates

Deontay Wilder and Daniel Jacobs both have return dates slated for the fall, with opponents to be determined, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

Middleweight contender Jacobs (32-2, 29 KO), who is coming off of a tight decision loss to Gennady Golovkin in March, would return on October 14, according to the plans, and that would be a PBC on FOX card. The 30-year-old Jacobs, even if he takes something more akin to a tuneup, will be looking to get right back into the middleweight title picture.

Wilder (38-0, 37 KO) would be back on November 4, but his situation is a bit more complicated. If it’s a fight with WBC mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne, then Showtime isn’t interested. If it’s not, then they are. Wilder beat Stiverne handily back in January 2015 to win the WBC title, but like it or not, the 38-year-old Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KO), who hasn’t fought since November 2015, is owed the title shot.

Wilder, 31, would rather face Luis Ortiz (27-0, 23 KO), and most fight fans would rather see that, too. But Stiverne has a legal team trying to prevent that from happening, and to get their client the fight that, again, to be fair, he is owed by the sanctioning body. There is no commercial interest in Wilder-Stiverne II, but Stiverne doesn’t care, and frankly, in this situation, he shouldn’t. The only thing the Wilder side can do is offer step-aside money, but Stiverne so far is resistant to that idea.