Cub Swanson excited for fresh challenges as he targets late-2020 return

Cub Swanson is confident he will return to action in 2020.

Swanson (26-11 MMA, 11-7 UFC) tore his ACL and meniscus when taking part in the Quintet Ultra grappling competition last December and is edging closer to an octagon return.

He’s still not able to fully train, but Swanson is starting to hit the mats and is on track for a full recovery by fall.

“I had surgery a week before Christmas, so I’m over five months now and I’m doing pretty good,” Swanson told MMA Junkie Radio. “I still can’t run. There’s some certain things I can’t do. But I’ve been boxing. I do agility stuff. I can’t land on it very hard, and wrestling and grappling have been – some things I’m just starting to do, and I’m only doing them with smaller guys to make sure any kind of fall or a movement I didn’t expect isn’t going to be as impactful since they’re a little smaller.

“This whole thing has been a mental battle for me. I’m used to having injuries, but I’ve never had to deal with an injury that took this long.”

Swanson snapped a four-fight losing skid this past October, when he bounced highly-touted prospect Kron Gracie out of the ranks of the unbeaten in a “Fight of the Night” performance.

With several new contenders emerging in the featherweight division, Swanson is looking forward to some fresh matchups upon his return.

“I’ve been trying to promote the ‘Killer Cub 2020,’ because that’s been it for me,” Swanson said. “The whole year it’s going to take me to come back just to fight one time, so I wanted my fans to kind of gather around me. … I’ll be able to fight one time this year, and so I’m taking the opportunity to just get better. My goal is to be better than I’ve ever been. I’m a little older now (and I’ve) got a lot of experience. These younger kids coming up are talented, so it’s exciting. I want to get back in there and I want to be better than I’ve ever been.”

Ideally, Swanson would like to return in November, but the one thing he knows for certain is he’d like to compete before the end of the year.

“I’ve said it since day one: November,” Swanson said. “November is like my go-to. It could be sooner, it could be later. I don’t know, because I’m just starting to get to that point where I can train for real, and I don’t ever know how I’m going to be until I start. So once I start doing the hard work and I see how my body is adjusting and how much I’ve got to pull back, that could determine if the time changes. But I feel like November is a safe time. It’s 11 months post-surgery … It could be sooner, it could be later, but it should be the end of this year – the last quarter of this year.”