After more than three years out of the Octagon and three separate knee surgeries, a frustrating stint on the sidelines will at last come to an end for Australian light heavyweight Tyson Pedro when he fights Ike Villanueva on Apr. 24.
Pedro, 30, was last inside the Octagon at UFC Adelaide in December 2018, but a knee injury suffered in that loss to Mauricio Rua set in motion a chain of events that tested both his physical and mental resilience.
"The initial time I tore my ACL completely, a complete rupture, I did nine months of a return after they did the hamstring graft," Pedro explained. "And then I went to New Zealand after I got another fight locked in [in 2020] and when I was training with Carlos [Ulberg] and the CKB boys, I got a weird trip and it tore the meniscus.
"So I got the meniscus stitched up, and then during COVID I was training at home and I tore the meniscus again. I went and saw another surgeon and he said that the ACL wasn't in the tunnel properly, so you need to redo the whole ACL and we'll have to cut out the meniscus."
On each occasion, the recovery got tougher. Pedro (7-3) admits there were times when it all got too much.
"Some [parts of the recovery were challenging], some of them I said 'f--- this, I'm out'," he said. "But definitely when I stuck to my routines, like when I did the 75 Hard Challenge, I was fine. I had to be training, as soon as I stopped training it all started going downhill. It didn't matter what kind of training; if I went and did one little bit of upper body training, I was fine. So training was always an important thing for me, but I also started working on my mind and reading a lot of psychology books for fighting."
Pedro also says he needed some distractions. Armed with the experiences of earlier derailed returns, Pedro knew he had to find time to get away from the sport.
Enter brother-in-law Tai Tuivasa.
"I opened up a couple of businesses, and that kept me going." Pedro revealed. "I did Drink West with Tai, we made a beer. I opened up a wings and a beer restaurant, and we've just opened up an Italian restaurant and now we're doing a brewery for Drink West at Penrith [in western Sydney]."
Eagle-eyed UFC fans might have seen Tuivasa doing his patented "shoey" from a Drink West boot following his shock win over Derrick Lewis at UFC 271 in Houston.
"Tai is a genius when it comes to marketing. He got asked if he would do a beer with [Drink West] and he really didn't like beer back then, so he was like 'Tyson loves beer, let's bring Tyson on'. So we went and tried a bunch of beers, I said 'this one and this one, mix them together, that's what we want'.
"That probably didn't help with the recovery, I drank more beer than I should have with the tasting, but it's pretty cool to see where we started and where it's at now."
Pedro has used the time out of competition to seek out some of the best coaches in the sport to ensure he will return a far better fighter than the one who went 3-2 in the UFC between 2016 and 2018.
He has spent time under Eugene Bareman at City Kickboxing [CKB] in New Zealand, also working with Israel Adesanya's mental coach David Niethe, and has most recently engaged featherweight world champion Alexander Volkanovski, Joe Lopez and the team at Freestyle Fighting Gym.
"Volk's mindset is crazy, just the way he is able to keep pushing through," Pedro said. "I've asked him about it and what he said I've only ever heard one other runner say something similar. He said 'we all feel the same lactic acid burn, it's just who's willing to push further through it'.
"And I guess years of pushing through it, you see him, he just doesn't stop and that mentality is crazy. So it's little key things that he does that you can pick up on, that's why he's the world champion."
Pedro remains extremely tight with Tuivasa, too, whom he helped prepare for the shock win over Lewis, a victory that has catapulted the heavyweight to within reach of a world title shot.
While he is ecstatic for Tuivasa and his success, Pedro is focused on charting his own path to UFC glory, starting with a quality performance and the victory over Villanueva next month.
From there, Pedro sees clear opportunity. While he plans to plot his way through each fight more carefully this time around, the Australian says the light heavyweight division remains as dynamic as any within the UFC.
"It's completely different to when I was in there fighting last time. I think Glover [Texeira] would be one of the only people who was there [ranked] when I was fighting last time [before the injuries]," Pedro told ESPN.
"So there is a lot of new talent and it looks like there are a lot of big hitters. But it's also good because you see in a few weight divisions there are clear outliers [champions]; there's so much movement [at light heavyweight] and it leaves it open to everyone."
While he is not worried about the fight itself, Pedro is feeling the pressure of his first UFC appearance in three years. From his family, his sponsors, and a legion of fans that extends well beyond Australia, the support on his journey back has been overwhelming.
"It's been non-stop, and I'm thankful to all the supporters who've stood by me through this whole time," Pedro said. "Now I'm ready to show why I still belong here."