This coming Monday, January 11th, "Bad" Brad Blackburn (15-9-1, 1 NC) returns to the Octagon after undergoing shoulder surgery this past summer to repair damage done in his Split Decision win against Edgar Garcia in June of '09. Fully healed, the 32 year old fighter looks to go 4-0 in the UFC when he takes on the winner of Season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter, Amir Sadollah (3-1), on the main card of UFC Fight Night from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia. Blackburn spoke with NW Fightscene's Spaniard this week about the fight and more...

NW Fightscene: Did you have shoulder surgery in August?
Brad Blackburn: I don't remember the exact date but I did have shoulder surgery. That's why I haven't been fighting.

NWFS: So how did that go and what happened?
Blackburn: I'm happy with the surgery. I can punch hard again. I tore my labrum and separated my AP joint in the first round of my last fight. 

NWFS: And after you got that all done, you feel good for your training camp now?
Blackburn: I do. I feel really good.

NWFS: What was your training camp like?
Blackburn: I did the first portion of it in Huntington Beach with Lew Polley, Jay Silva, Krzysztof Soszynski, Junior Gazze and Shawn McCullough. And then the last month or so I've been here in Washington.

NWFS: What's your last week like leading up to a fight?
Blackburn: The plan is to keep working my lungs. Keep going through all the motions. Not having any more wars in the gym. The last couple of weeks we've been having wars in the gym. Thumping each other pretty good, knocking each other out. Grappling full speed. So the week of the fight, don't want to have any injuries. I'm already ready for the fight and its just paying attention to details. Sharpening up the tools, sharpening up my ground game. Sharpening up my footwork and my movement, my hands. Basically just maintaining what I've built up these last two months. 

NWFS: Are you one of those guys that watches a lot of video of your opponent?
Blackburn: I do watch video of my opponents. I try not to dwell on it too much because they're not fighting me. What they did to other people, that's what they did to other people. That's not me. And then I feel when you dwell on what other people do too much, you can start respecting them too much. Which means you wont fight your fight or fight to your ability because you're respecting their kicks or their wrestling so much that you're not going to do yours. I like to have an idea of what the guys strengths are and things that he tends to do, but that's about it. Besides that, my game plan changes a little per fight but not too much. 

NWFS: Your fight with Amir, he's got some reach, he's strong. What are your thoughts on him?
Blackburn: My thoughts on him is that he's a good striker. He puts his punches and kicks together well. He hasn't been in there with someone who is as equally as technical and powerful. He's had powerful fighters but they weren't as technical. He's had wrestlers and jiu-jitsu. I don't think he's fought a fighter fighter like me. I'll go in there and bite down on my mouth piece and start throwing them hard. I'm ready for an ugly fight. I think he's had people take him down and dump him on the mat and stuff. But I'm coming to stand up. UFC says they want a standup war. I'm not happy with my performance on my last fight because I had one arm. I'm happy I won but that's not how I fight. I want to make it clear to the UFC that when I come, I'm coming to fight. 

NWFS: You see this fight ending in a knockout?
Blackburn: I want an ugly war. I'm ready to get hurt. I'm ready to get hit. And I'm ready to dish it out. We'll see if he's ready. I've been through it. It's happened to me. I think he's a tough guy, he's very durable but so am I. And I hit hard. So we'll see how it goes but I'm coming to fight. I'm not coming in to take him down and grind anything out. I'm coming to fight. To kick, punch, wrestle, stand back up and start kicking and punching again.

NWFS: You're a veteran, had a lot of fights. Before the fight are you a super psyched pumped guy or are you calm before you fight?
Blackburn: I'm a calm guy before my fight because I want to fight so bad. I feel like I fight better when I'm calm. But I want to fight. So I listen to Pearl Jam before I go out, Erykah Badu, R. Kelly, Musiq Soulchild. Try to relax and stay calm and breathe because I just want to get out there and go. But I feel I do better and fight smarter when I just take a step back. So I try to do what I do best. And I feel like I'm a very technical striker for how strong of striker I am. So I try to stay calm. That's my goal. That's like my fight, the whole fight, is to not fight too much. Because I just want to go in there and start swinging for the fences, that's what I want to do.

NWFS: You're undefeated in UFC competition. Suppose you walk away with this fight with a win, what's next for you?
Blackburn: What's next for me is trying to get another win. I really don't care. Like people say, titles come and go. My goal as a fighter was to fight the best in the world and I'm doing that. So now I'm just trying to make good money doing something I like to do. As long as I'm fighting in the UFC, I'm happy. 

NWFS: So are you able to do that right now? Its hard for a lot of fighters to train full time, are you able to do it with sponsors and the pay and all that?
Blackburn: Its been very hard for me because my fights haven't been aired and because of my injuries I haven't been fighting that much. But I've made some adjustments. I changed my lifestyle a little bit so that I can stretch it out. Its been very rough but as long as I can keep it going now with these aired fights, the sponsors should pick up and I should be fine. As long as I'm winning. 

NWFS: Is that hard on a fighter, the pressure of having to consistently keep the zeros in the loss column or else they can't make money?
Blackburn: Well, you know. It does suck. That's why I do it. If it was easy and wasn't stressful, I probably wouldn't like it as much. All the things that are hard about the sport probably is what drives me and that's what I like about it. That's what gives me adrenaline and I feed off that.

NWFS: So when you're not fighting, what do you do for fun?
Blackburn: I like riding quads in the sand dunes. I like fishing. About to start hunting. I like snowboarding. Stuff like that. I like to do outdoorsy things. I party. I party hard when I party, but I try not to party too much. 

NWFS: Thank you very much for this interview on behalf of NW Fightscene.

Any sponsors anyone you'd like to thank?
Blackburn: I'd like to thank Tapout and BSN. And all my fans and training partners for their support. 

Brad fights live on Spike TV Monday, Jan 11th on UFC Fight Night Maynard vs Diaz against Ultimate Fighter Season 7 winner Amir Sadollah. Learn more at UFC.com or check your local listings. Visit Brad online at myspace.com/bradblackburn.