Ian Green wants to be a great comeback story, which finishes with a title.  

On Saturday, Green will face journeyman Cleotis Pendarvis in an eight-round super middleweight bout from Bienville Ballroom in Mobile, Alabama. 

Green, 19-2 (12 KOs), will be returning to the ring for the first time since June 2024, when he won a 10-round unanimous decision over Roy Barringer. Green, a 31-year-old from Patterson, New Jersey, has had a career filled with hardships. Green lost a lot. He lost his father, Ian Green Snr, to cancer in 2015 and he lost his undefeated record in 2016. He’d lose another fight in 2017, and then his mother, Lorie Brown, to a car accident in 2019. Green suffered from depression at his lowest moments, but has clawed his way back. Now, he is unbeaten in his last seven fights since the passing of his mother, and looks to make inroads to a belt at super middleweight. 

“Winning the title is the final chapter of the movie I am writing about my career,” Green said. “It is the missing piece from my story.”

Green knew the road back in boxing wouldn’t be easy. With two losses, he’d have to forge his way to a title the old-fashioned way, and win hard fights. Green believes his story will one day be remembered as one of boxing’s biggest comeback stories. 

It will certainly be some story. In 2021, he upset then-unbeaten Tyler Howard via unanimous decision. Things looked promising until 2024, when he became inactive. Green now has a new team around him with a new manager and Roy Jones Jnr as his trainer. 

“It is different from someone who can look at you and see you are tired, and someone who knows what it is like to be tired and get something out of you,” Green said of Jones. “He can help with the experience of having fought at the highest level.”

Green is facing Pendarvis, 22-26-2 (9 KOs), a former welterweight who is now a regional opponent. Pendarvis, a 39-year-old from Lancaster, California, will enter the ring as Green looks to get active and see if a big fight could be possible. The big fight isn’t against Pendarvis, who is on a lengthy losing streak, but a win opens the door to possible fights against ranked contenders in a division loaded with big names.

“I was just No.3 in the WBA at middleweight before I was removed due to inactivity,” Green said. “We are back and better than ever.”