Kiwi middleweight Dylan Andrews will step inside the UFC's octagon for the first time in 11 months on Saturday.
The Gold Coast-based 34-year-old tried to put a positive spin on his lengthy layoff by joking that he's just had a really long training camp for his bout against American Sam Alvey (23-6, 1NC) in Sydney at UFC Fight Night 55.
Rewind nearly a year and you will find yourself at UFC Fight Night 33 in Brisbane where Andrews (17-5, 1NC) threw his shoulder out during the second round of his contest with Clint Hester.
The fight doctor deemed that Andrews couldn't continue as he suffered a TKO loss and was sent for surgery the following week with the news that he wouldn't return for 9-12 months.
"It's been hard," he said of his layoff. "But I just got tunnel vision and I knew that I was fighting at the end of the year. I got myself ready a week after I got out of surgery."
The time off has allowed him to revamp his diet with a focus on clean living.
"It's as close to the farm as I can get my food," he said. "My fruit and vegetables are as close to the garden as I can get and my body is just responding so well to this way of eating."
Andrews flirted with the idea of a drop to welterweight this year but decided to stay at middleweight, despite being one of the smallest fighters in the division.
The fight between Andrews and Alvey has the makings of an exciting stand-up battle.
"He's a super-tough dude," Andrews said of his opponent. "He can obviously take a punch and he likes to get hit... I like to hit people and he likes to get hit so it's going to be a good fight. I'm going to push it hard, we are just going to drag him out and see if he can handle it."
Auckland-born Australian Robert Whittaker (12-4) has moved from welterweight up to middleweight and will meet Hester (11-3) on the main card of Saturday's show.
UFC Fight Night 55 will be headlined by a five-round bout between middleweight contenders Michael Bisping (25-6) and Luke Rockhold (12-2). Both men have been embroiled in a vicious war of words for months and their fight will allow them to settle their feud.