Nigel Benn is expected to announce his comeback at a press conference in London on Thursday at the age of 55 after being retired for 23 years.

One of the most popular British boxers in the past half-century, Benn, the former WBO middleweight champion and WBC super-middleweight champion, is scheduled to box at the Resorts World Arena, Birmingham, on November 23. It is the same venue – although then it was simply known as the National Exhibition Centre – where he faces Chris Eubank in their first fight 29 years ago.

It is understood that Benn will be facing Sakio Bika, another former WBC super-middleweight champion, who won that belt 17 years after Benn lost it. The Cameroonian is now 40, but was active just two years ago and boxed Adonis Stevenson for the WBC light-heavyweight titles four years ago.

The fight will be sanctioned by the fringe organisation the by the British & Irish Boxing Authority (BIBA) after the British Boxing Board of Control informed Benn that there was virtually no chance of him getting his licence back.

"I spoke to him on the phone and had email correspondence and I was very honest with him," said Robert Smith, general secretary of the BBBC. “I told him I thought the chances of him getting a licence were exceptionally thin and I didn’t even think he would get an interview in front of the area council. We left it at that."

The fight has been widely condemned. Frank Warren, who promoted Benn at both the beginning and end of his career, said there is no way it should go ahead.

“He needs saving from himself,” said Frank Warren, who promoted Benn for most of his professional career. “I feel very sad that he feels the need to do this.

“He retired a long, long time ago. He may be back in the gym and he might feel good, but a fight is a whole different thing. The Board said no and people should not be confused into thinking this is a properly-sanctioned fight. 55-year-olds should not be boxing. Anyone around him who cares about him shouldn't be letting this go ahead.”

Eddie Hearn, who promotes Benn’s son, Conor, said that Benn approached him two years ago with a plan for a third fight with Eubank.

“I have too much respect for Nigel Benn to criticise him,” Hearn said. “He must have his reasons for doing it, I don’t believe it is just money. So what are they? Competitiveness? Curiosity? Boredom?”

"He was always going to fight Eubank. That was always going to be the big comeback fight. Whether you like it or not, Benn and Eubank would have been a big deal. But Benn against Sakio Bika in Birmingham?

“If it is Sakio Bika, I don't like that fight. He is still a right handful, he is strong, he can punch. He is horrible with his head, he is dirty.”

BIBA’s roots can be traced back to the fallout from the David Haye v Dereck Chisora fight in 2012. After Chisora's licence was revoked by the BBBC, the pair boxed under Luxembourg licences, a direct challenge to the idea that only the BBBC could sanction professional boxing in Britain.

In the aftermath two groups, operating under the names of the German Boxing Association and the Malta Boxing Commission (MBC), began staging shows in Britain. The MBC morphed into BIBA in 2016.

Last year they sanctioned a show in Aberdeen that saw Lee McAllister, who once held the Commonwealth lightweight title, beat Danny Williams for the long discredited World Boxing Union heavyweight title. Williams, who once beat Mike Tyson and faced Vitali Klitschko for the WBC heavyweight title, last held a BBBC licence in 2010, but has spent the years since selling his ever-decreasing legacy to any promoter in Eastern Europe who will pay.