Viddal Riley is back and ready to make up for lost time.

Riley, 12-0 (7 KOs), looked set for a big 2024 after outclassing Mikael Lawal to win the English title in March.

Heat had been building between Riley, former British champion, Isaac Chamberlain, and Cheavon Clarke for some time and the three looked set to engage in a round robin which would go a long way to deciding the man most likely to follow former WBO cruiserweight champion, Chris Billam-Smith, into world class.

Unfortunately, the three broken ribs the Londoner suffered during the opening round of his bout with Lawal would sideline him for months.

With Riley sidelined, the division moved on.

Chamberlain, 16-3 (8 KOs), vacated his British title and lost a decision to Jack Massey in a European title fight

After a long wait as mandatory challenger, Clarke finally got his shot and went on to win the vacant British title by stopping Ellis Zorro before coming up short in his own European title tilt in December when exciting Frenchman, Leonardo Mosquea, outpointed him.

Riley has had to sit quietly and watch his rivals move on with heir own careers but the 27 year-old is finally ready to re-enter the mix.

He shook off the rust with an easy stoppage of Dan Garber at heavyweight last month and, rather than taking another fight to feel his way back into the cruiserweight division, he immediately sought out his old rival, Chamberlain. The two will fight at Wembley Arena on February 1st.

“It’s been a long year out of the ring. We've been training ever since I could start training again after the injury,” he told Boxxer. “Graduated it up, kept graduating it, made it tougher, tougher, tougher and then we said, ‘Yeah, we're ready to come back.’ Straight into camp and I’m just excited, man. I’m excited to just show people what I'm about.”

Riley was an excellent junior amateur and also holds unpaid victories over Billam-Smith and current IBF heavyweight champion, Daniel Dubois. A foray into the world of influencer boxing as trainer to KSI boosted his profile and popularity with younger, casual fans but resulted in many in the professional sport overlooking his ability.

He has decided that it is high time he reminded purple exactly what he is capable of.

“I'm sick and tired of being compared to people I don't think should be compared to me. That's the truth,” he said.

‘So it's about me just putting the performances down and finally just breaking through that next stage.

“I’ve got it. I’ve got it. So it's time to show the people.”