Its been four months since Mike (Quick) Swicks last fight, just a trickle in the sands of time compared to his previous layoff. A painful stomach disorder and blown-out knee kept Swick out of action for 910 days then. To put his absence in context, Swick missed 40 numbered UFC events before returning this summer to beat DaMarques Johnson. The man who was once just one win away from a welterweight title fight was missing in action for a long time. After Paulo Thiago choked him unconscious on Feb. 6, 2010, at UFC 109, Swick was sidelined until Aug. 4, 2012, when he beat Johnson in the second round on a televised card. "That was a proud moment," he said of the comeback win. Swick (15-4) returns to the cage next Saturday when he faces Matt (The Immortal) Brown on a televised card in Seattle. Having survived the nerves and uncertainty of his comeback bout -- and yet more surgery that followed -- the 33-year-old Swick is looking forward to entering the cage in peak condition. "All those (health) issues are packed up," said the Texan who now calls San Jose home. "I feel like I went in there (against Johnson) and dealt with everything. I had success and got the victory. Its going to be that much easier now, not having to deal with all that stuff that I had to deal with then. "So its an easier path but I feel like a tough opponent and a good test. I think this is a fight that will kind of showcase where I belong in the division." Brown (17-11) is a hard-nosed fighter who has won three straight and four of his last five to improve his UFC record to 8-5. The 31-year-old Brown is a gamer. He has gone to decision just four times in his career (winning two and losing two). "Hes the kind of fighter that Ive wanted to fight for a while," said Swick. "Because he has never been knocked out, hes one of those guys that is known for taking punches and just bulldozing through them." Swick, who says he has "always got reaction from my punches," sees Browns chin as a good test to see how his striking stacks up. Like Swick, Brown knows all about emerging from dark days. Brown once overdosed on heroin. He has spent time behind bars and recalls getting "jacked up on meth" for underground fights back in the day before deciding to clean up his life and try MMA as a career. His nickname "The Immortal" is more about surviving brushes with death outside the cage rather than for his fighting style. Swicks nickname Quick, meanwhile, came from a string of rapid finishes. His first two UFC fights lasted just 42 seconds in total. The next two lasted 2:09 and 2:19, respectively. Despite his comeback win, it has not been all smooth sailing for Swick in recent months. After Johnson, he underwent knee and elbow surgery. The knee surgery was linked to previous anterior cruciate ligament surgery. "It never healed correctly so I never had full extension," he explained. "Basically I didnt have a quad for that whole (Johnson) training camp. So I couldnt extend the knee, I couldnt flex the quad and that was obviously a huge issue." "It worked enough to get through the motions of fighting," he said of the Johnson win. Immediately after the fight, a surgeon cleaned up scar tissue in his knee that was hampering his flexibility. Swick has had three elbows surgeries, the results of too much mitt work in training, he says. "The elbow just needed to be cleaned out," he said. Like "The Six Million Dollar Man," Swick has been fixed more than a few times. "Ive had so many surgeries," he said with a laugh. "Ive been rebuilt so many times." When the UFC called to offer up Brown, Swick said it was "sooner than I expected but there was no way I was going to turn it down." Swick has had to deal with more than bone chips and torn ligaments over the years. After years of distress, he was diagnosed with a bad case of esophageal spasms -- painful muscle contractions that affect the esophagus, which connects the throat to the stomach. The spasms can feel like severe chest pain. After beating Canadian David Loiseau at UFC 63 in September 2006, he knew something was wrong and was cutting things out of his diet that were causing his body to react badly. It started with him not being able to sleep. If he ate certain foods or ate late at night, he would experience painful spasms when he lay down. "It feels like a heart attack kind of and it doesnt go away for several hours. You can pretty much forget sleep when it happens," he said. If it happened during training camp, his workouts suffered. And it was especially bad if it came during fight week. "It got to a point where it was really tough to deal with," he said. He started having trouble eating enough to maintain his weight. Then a middleweight, he weighed 182 pounds the day of his Yushin Okami fight at UFC 69 in April 2007. Okami would have cut weight to make 185 and then put on pounds in the hours leading to the fight. Swick lost a decision and decided to move down to welterweight. He also started visiting a string of doctors in a bid to figure out what was wrong. "It was just a nightmare," he said. "The doctors dont have as much as info as you would think for a condition like this. So most of what they were doing for me was experimental." That included getting Botox injections in his esophagus. "So while training for fighting and going and having these fights, Im on all these medicines and procedures and it was just a big mess because none of them were helping. And they were making things worse, making it almost impossible to train. "A lot of the medicine were sedatives so I was really weak during training." Swicks penchant for over-training didnt help either. "My mind wants to train harder than my body can hold up. And so I basically I break my body and destroy it." Amazingly he won four more fights before taking on Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy at UFC 105 in November 2009 with a title shot on the line. "I was going through the worst part of it during that fight," he said of his health problems. Swick lost by decision. Less than three months later, he was beaten by Thiago. At one point between fights, he was afraid to go to the doctor for fear of what he might hear. "Because I had just been misdiagnosed, I had tried all these experimental treatments, and then the new doctor diagnosed me with the esophageal spasm and I didnt believe him any more. So I literally thought, thinking in my mind just because I had been through so much, I had something serious -- like maybe something terminal. "I thought these guys, they dont know whats going on. Theres no chance something this bad and this painful can be just no big deal." He returned after the fight and his doctor convinced him it was a bad case of esophageal spasm. Swick put fighting aside while he tried to find a balance, determining what foods he can eat and those he cant. He managed to do that and returned to training, only to blow out his knee. Surgery and another lengthy delay followed. The good news is it gave him more time to learn how to deal with the esophageal spasm. "It works great, I have it under control," he said. "Its something I continue to live with and always will but it doesnt affect my training any more. It doesnt affect my strength, my conditioning, my cardio. In fact its put me in better shape because Ive been forced to eat healthier than Ive ever eaten before. "And the side effect of that is you feel great." He can no longer eat garlic, spice and pepper or anything acidic. Oranges are out. He avoids caffeine and can only manage chocolate in very small quantities. Today his diet includes vegetables and unseasoned chicken, meat and fish. Coconut water is a fave, as is wheatgrass, and he uses avocado a lot. At first, he says his diet was "horrible." But he gradually learned what he could use to make things interesting without upsetting his body. "Its about mixture," he said. "I have a lot of stuff to work with so I can mix and match and create new recipes." "Me ordering in a restaurant is very interesting." One positive from his long layoff is that Swick believes it has helped preserve a body that has seen 19 pro fights and more than 20 amateur bouts. "You feel them all on the body, considering Im getting older now," he said. "But I feel great. I definitely can say Im in the best shape Ive ever been in." While he has escalated his cardio and conditioning, he is taking or precautions in sparring, just to be on the safe side. He wears more protective gear than he used to and is more cautious grappling. Today he says he is stronger than before, having survived all his health issues. "This was definitely a test. And it was tough." Cheap Jerseys From China . Maybe their Sept. 15 bout isnt such a gross size mismatch after all. Maybe Lopez really has another shot at an incredible upset. The matchup is the latest unlikely chapter for Lopez (30-4, 18 KOs), a virtually unknown fighter outside of his native Southern California before last month. Cheap Jerseys . After spending the first 12 seasons of his career with the Texas Rangers, it was stay with the only team ever played with in the majors as a part-timer without a set position, or the seven-time All-Star could go to Philadelphia to be the everyday third baseman for another playoff-contending team. http://www.cheapjerseysnflwho... . Lampards agent Steve Kutner has told British media that Chelsea has no intention of offering the veteran midfielder a new contract when his current deal expires at the end of the season. [url=http://www.cheapjerseysnflwholesalestore.com/]cheapjerseysnflwholesalestore... . -- After six seasons as the worldwide face of Major League Soccer, David Beckham believes nobody should doubt its a major league. [url=http://www.cheapjerseysnflwholesalestore.com/]Wholesale Jerseys . UK Anti-Doping says the Iraqi-born professional tested positive for stanozolol following his four-round loss to former Olympic champion Audley Harrison on May 26.ESPOO, Finland -- Former U.S. figure skating champion Johnny Weir returns to competition this weekend at the Finlandia Trophy. Weir, a three-time winner at nationals (2004-06), has not competed since finishing sixth in the 2010 Olympics at Vancouver. He also was fifth at the 2006 Games at Turin, Italy. Weir has said he is coming back because he wants to skate in the Sochi Olympics in two years. He plans to skate in two Grand Prix series events this season. Also competing in the Finlandia Trophy are 2011 U.S. silver medallist Richard Dornbush, and in the womeens event, 2010 U.ddddddddddddS. Olympian Mirai Nagasu. Russias Evgeni Plushenko, the 2006 Olympic champion and silver medallist in Vancouver, also begins his season this weekend at the Japan Open in Saitama. Plushenko has not competed since winning his seventh European crown in January. He goes against two-time world champion Patrick Chan of Canada and 2010 world champ and Olympic bronze medallist Daisuke Takahashi of Japan. Reigning U.S. champion Ashley Wagner and national bronze medallist Agnes Zawadzki are American entrants in the event. ' ' '