Former cruiserweight champion Jean-Marc Mormeck is making a comeback to boxing.

Speaking on his 42nd birthday, Mormeck said in Paris on Tuesday he would return after an absence of more than two years to fight Hungary's Tamas Lodi later this month.

The Frenchman, who held the WBC and WBA cruiserweight titles, has not fought since March 2012 when he challenged heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and was knocked out in the fourth round.

Mormeck said the cruiserweight bout against Lodi, to be held in Asnieres near Paris on June 26, would be his last if he loses.

"I am setting myself one last challenge,” he said, explaining that the idea was to fight in a tenth and last world title bout.

"I know this is my last chance to win a belt. If I lose, I will say goodbye to the ring."

Mormeck’s record of 36-5 includes 22 wins inside the distance. He also fought the likes of Timur Ibragimov, David Haye, Fres Oquendo and Virgil Hill during a career that began in March 1995.

Lodi, who has won 13 of his 16 professional fights, including two knockout victories, lost on points to Albania's Nuri Seferi in his most recent bout when they fought for the WBO European cruiserweight title in Hamburg in May.

Mormeck, who was born in Guadeloupe, won the WBA cruiserweight title in 2002 and again in 2005 and the WBC belt in 2007.

He was scheduled to fight Poland's Krzysztof Wlodarczyk in a cruiserweight bout in May last year but suffered a shoulder injury while training.

His fight against Klitschko was for the WBO, IBF, WBA and IBO heavyweight titles. They met in Düsseldorf, where Mormeck was knocked down in the second round before being knocked out in the fourth.