With MMA as his hobby, UFC on FX 8's John Cholish has sights fixed on Tibau

John Cholish didn’t want to be off for the past year. And when thinking about the injury that kept him down, one could hardly blame him.

Cholish (8-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) on Saturday meets Gleison Tibau (26-9 MMA, 11-7 UFC) on the preliminary card of UFC on FX 8 in Tibau’s home country of Brazil. It will be his first fight since suffering a full tear of his groin this past fall.

UFC on FX 8 takes place at Arena Jaragua in Jaragua do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The event’s main card airs on FX following prelims on FUEL TV and Facebook.

Cholish was booked for a fight against veteran Yves Edwards for this past December’s UFC on FOX 5 card, but the groin injury put him on the shelf.

“I tore the inside of my groin completely, so I was pretty much off the mats for two whole months just doing rehab,” Cholish told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “It was a bit of an unfortunate situation, but it gave me some time to rest up, heal a little bit, refocus and come back.”

Cholish said by doctor’s orders, the first three weeks after the injury, he couldn’t do anything – not even start his rehab.

“I couldn’t really train at all, and for a person who spends at least some part of every day in the gym, it was kind of a big transition,” he said. “It was very frustrating, to say the least, and it kind of made me sit back and realize (what I have when I train). It was tough.”

Cholish will be looking to get back in the win column after he had an eight-fight win streak snapped by Danny Castillo at UFC on FOX 3 in May 2012. Castillo won a unanimous decision in that fight, and it was the first time Cholish had tasted defeat since the first fight of his pro career.

So the downtime the injury forced on him was doubly tough, given that he’s trying to rebound from that first UFC loss.

Against Tibau, yes, he goes into the proverbial lion’s den to fight a Brazilian in Brazil. But he also knows that Tibau, widely regarded as one of the lightweight division’s biggest fighters, will have a size advantage when they get into the octagon.

“For this fight, I’ve been walking around at 170 (pounds),” Cholish said. “I know Gleison is huge at 155. So the joke in camp was, whether I’m five pounds heavier or not, it’s really not going to weigh out in the end. So I just spent a lot of time keeping my weight down, staying more active, eating really healthy, and the weight cut’s already going really well.

“If you’re in the UFC, you must be doing something right, and Gleison’s definitely known for his strength and his improved striking. You can’t say a negative thing about the guy – he’s been around for such a long time. He’s had a tremendous career, and I’m really just looking at it as an opportunity to showcase my skills against another talented fighter.”

Tibau has dropped two of his past three. With the UFC’s recent fighter cuts often affecting even veterans who have a mere two straight losses, his back could be against the wall – just as Cholish’s could be.

Cholish holds down a full-time job outside of fighting. He said he doesn’t fight for the money he makes from the UFC.

But that doesn’t mean he’s not looking at Tibau as a chance to up his stock in a stacked lightweight division.

“I fight because I love it and enjoy it,” he said. “I’m not doing it for a financial standpoint. It’s really more a hobby to me – I don’t mean I’m going to take it lightly. I take it very seriously and put all my effort into it. But my day job is where I get my livelihood from, and I just see this as an opportunity to compete against top-level guys and test myself.”

And that’s why he isn’t thinking about anything beyond Saturday’s fight. He’s not thinking about building a streak and making a run at lightweight. He’s not thinking about how many fights he might be able to get in 2013 to make up for having just one in 2012.

He has Tibau in his sights because without a win over him in Brazil, everything else becomes rather moot.

“I’m so busy between work and fighting that I just focus on the task at hand,” he said. “To try to look by Tibau would be a silly mistake. All my heart and energy is focused on this Saturday.”

For the latest on UFC on FX 8, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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