By Steve Kim

It's been almost one year since Matt Korobov was in the ring. It was on December 13th, 2014 in Las Vegas that he was leading on all three scorecards against Andy Lee after five rounds before he was stopped in the sixth. That fight was for the vacant WBO middleweight title. Since then he's been dormant.

According to his manager, Cameron Dunkin,"He's fighting January 16th in Dallas, Texas."

This will be part of a Top Rank card that will feature heavyweight prospect, Andy Ruiz.

Dunkin believes that Korobov (24-1, 14 KO's) still has a chance to be a player in the middleweight division.

"He takes care of himself, he trains hard, he's got a lot of experience. I hope so, I think so."

The reality is that the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Saul Alvarez and Danny Jacobs all need serviceable opponents.

"He's just got to get back to training again and I talked to Peter (Nelson, HBO Sports Executive V.P. of Programming) and I just said,'is there a place for him?' and he said,'yeah, if he gets back winning. Let me know.'"

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.