It’s been 10 months since James Nakashima won LFA’s welterweight title, and it sounds like being out recovering from an injury was far from ideal.

With a complicated knee injury now in the rearview mirror, Nakashima (8-0) is honed in on his welterweight title defense against Kyle Stewart (10-0) tonight in the LFA 46 main event.

LFA 46 takes place tonight at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Newport News, Va. The main card airs on AXS TV.

Nakashima won the belt with a split-decision win over Derrick Krantz in September 2017 at LFA 23. The win kept him perfect as a pro, but was his first split call after opening his career with seven straight unanimous decision wins.

In Stewart, Nakashima has a title challenger in front of him with seven stoppages in his 10 career wins. Stewart is 2-0 under the LFA banner, and also got a win over Jason Jackson during the first season of Dana White’s Contender Series in a bid to get into the UFC.

Ahead of the title fight, Nakashima talked to AXS TV Fights’ Phoenix Carnevale about recovering from his injury, his preparation for Stewart, and some of the controversy in his past fights.

Check out the video interview above.

And for more on LFA 46, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.