Last year was not a good year for Demond Nicholson, not with his unanimous decision loss to Demetrius Andrade, and especially not with the second straight defeat that followed, a fourth-round knockout at the hands of Christian Mbilli.

Some 13 months after the Mbilli fight, Nicholson (26-6-1, 22 KOs) is returning to the ring. The Maryland fighter will be fighting on October 12 at Bowie State University, not too far from his hometown of Laurel. BoxRec lists his opponent as Daniel Aduku (15-6-1, 11 KOs), a Ghanaian boxer now living in Columbus, Ohio.

Nicholson says he’ll be fighting at light heavyweight. Almost all of his career was at middleweight and super middleweight. 

“I had to take a break, get my health in order,” Nicholson said in an announcement posted on social media. “Fighting liver failure, kidney failure, autoimmune disease. It really took a lot out of me. Now that I had the break, I had the time to find myself, become one with myself financially, spiritually, physically and mentally.

“I think I’m going to be the strongest I’ve ever been,” he said. “I know I will.”

Nicholson turned pro in 2013 as a middleweight. He suffered his first loss in 2014 but continued to develop. Nicholson fought Immanuwel Aleem to a draw in 2016, only to lose a split decision to Steve Rolls one fight later. He then moved up to super middleweight. Nicholson took his third defeat in 2018, stopped by Jesse Hart. He then put together five straight wins from 2018 to 2020, though he also was hospitalized in May 2019 with a kidney condition. 

“After my kidney failure, the doctor said I wouldn’t be ready [for] 12 months after recovery,” Nicholson tweeted a couple of years ago. “I didn’t want to hear [that. My] kidneys started functioning again. Five months after, I was right back fighting, beating my body down, not realizing I still had the problems.”

Nicholson was dropped multiple times in a decision loss to Edgar Berlanga in April 2021 — the first time that Berlanga didn’t win a fight via first-round knockout.

“When I fought Berlanga, that Monday before the fight I had the same symptoms, just no kidney failure,” Nicholson posted a couple years ago. “I still went out and fought regardless. It’s just who I am. I’m 100% now taking care of my body, physically and mentally. No man can beat me.”

Nicholson won three fights in 2021 and 2022 before the losses to Andrade and Mbilli.

Aduku will be the smaller man against Nicholson. He’s spent most of his career at junior middleweight and middleweight. Aduku has lost four in a row dating back to April 2023, stopped by 18-1 Chordale Booker in four rounds at junior middleweight, put away in four rounds by 8-0 Darrelle Valsaint at middleweight, taken out in five rounds by the aforementioned Hart at light heavyweight, and outpointed by 24-5-1 Brandon Quarles in early August at super middleweight.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.