CHICAGO – After a pretty rough stretch of more than two years that had him pondering his future as a fighter, Eddie Wineland was badly in need of a win on Saturday.

The former WEC champ and former UFC title challenger got it – and not only cemented in his mind that he still has what it takes to compete, but that he still can produce some results that could be life-altering.

Wineland (22-11-1 MMA, 4-5 UFC) on Saturday closed out the preliminary card at UFC on FOX 20 with a third-round TKO of Frankie Saenz (11-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC). The stoppage came on a night filled with fights that went the distance, and that helped Wineland pick up a $50,000 bonus check for one of the two “Performance of the Night” awards.

UFC on FOX 20 took place at United Center in Chicago. It aired on FOX following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

But it wasn’t long ago that Wineland, who lives an hour away in Northwest Indiana, wasn’t sure if he was going to keep fighting. After a TKO loss to Renan Barao in an interim bantamweight title fight at UFC 165, Wineland rebounded with a TKO of Yves Jabouin in January 2014.

But after that, things went south in a major way when he was knocked out by Johnny Eduardo at UFC Fight Night 40 in May 2014. As if the loss wasn’t devastating enough on its own, Eduardo broke Wineland’s jaw. With doctors telling him they weren’t sure he should fight again, Wineland himself questioned whether or not getting back in the cage would be the best move.

Ultimately, after 14 months, he did – but was a step behind Bryan Caraway all night a year ago in Chicago at UFC on FOX 16 for his third loss in four fights.

“I broke the jaw and I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back,” Wineland told MMAjunkie. “The only reason I wanted to keep fighting was for my 2-year-old son, just to prove a point to him that if you get knocked down, you get up and you keep moving forward. Get up and keep moving.

“This win tonight is exactly what I needed. I questioned myself quite a bit throughout this training camp – do I want to keep doing this? Is this really what I want to be doing? Not that I don’t love fighting, but the bumps and the bruises – I don’t heal like a 22-year-old boy anymore. I’m a 32-year-old man and I’ve got aches and pains all day, every day. To get in there and realize that because I’m a 32-year-old man, I’ve still got it.”

Wineland was up two rounds to none on two of the judges’ scorecards going to the third round, so he was on his way to a victory. But with his cornermen, including former UFC fighter Keith Wisniewski, telling him they couldn’t be sure, getting a stoppage win turned out to be the safest play.

“Keith said he thought it was 1-1 – it was a close fight, and (he thought) the winner of (the third round) takes it,” Wineland said. “I was patient. I took my time and kind of stalked him down, and the first time I knocked him down, he wasn’t ready yet. The second time, I felt him go limp and then it was time to pounce.”

Pouncing led to an extra $50,000 for Wineland, who holds down a full-time job as a firefighter in Northwest Indiana. In fact, he said he was scheduled to work at 7 a.m. Sunday morning – about 12 hours after he put Saenz away, which led arguably the United Center fans’ loudest ovation of the night.

That’s the kind of money, he said, that will come in handy – especially given he fought just once in 2013, twice in 2014 and once in 2015.

“My biggest goal is to pay my house off so my wife doesn’t have to continue to work,” Wineland said. “… I would like it so my wife doesn’t have to work, and if I could pay the house down low enough and refinance, she doens’t have to go back to work.”

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 20, check out the UFC Events section of the site.