OKLAHOMA CITY - Former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe applied for an Oklahoma boxing license Friday, clearing the way for a possible second fight in the state, a state boxing administrator said.

Bowe applied for the license Friday and received preliminary approval, but would need to have any proposed fight approved by the commission, said Joe Miller, administrator of the Oklahoma Professional Boxing Commission.

Bowe announced Thursday that he would make his comeback after a seven-year layoff with a fight Sept. 25 against low-ranking veteran Jeff Lally at an arena near the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s FireLake Casino.

Bowe (40-1, 32 KOs) does not need an Oklahoma boxing license for the fight on tribal land. Instead, he was licensed to fight by the tribe’s boxing commission following an MRI and neurological tests by a doctor at Midwest City Regional Hospital.

“I was very skeptical when I first heard about it because I was like everybody else,” Miller said. “I heard all these things: that Riddick Bowe was walking on his heels, Riddick Bowe’s got brain problems.”

Miller said that boxing officials across the country told him to make sure Bowe had an MRI and other neurological tests. Miller said the results received the approval of both doctors, who are independent of Bowe.

Bowe hasn’t fought since a December 1996 win by disqualification against Andrew Golota. He finished a 17-month prison term in May for abducting his first wife, Judy Bowe, and their five children in 1998. He emerged from prison at 255 pounds after losing about 70 pounds by running 3 miles a day.

Bowe has said he wants to fight 15 times in an attempt to contend for the heavyweight title within 18 months.