Matt Wiman told himself he wouldn’t fight any more after getting knocked out by a flying knee in his UFC debut eight years ago.

Instead, he came back, and he won his next fight. After that, he wanted to quit again, but the decision didn’t stick.

“I think I said I’m never fighting again maybe after half my fights,” Wiman told MMAjunkie Radio. “‘I’m never doing that again,’ and I did it. I did that, like, six times, and then I was like, I’ll probably do it for a while.”

Wiman carved out a career as a tough lightweight who struggled to break out of the pack. He went on a four-fight win streak after his debut loss, but then dropped a pair of bouts to standouts Jim Miller and Sam Stout. He won three, and then dropped another one.

Momentum seemed to elude him, though he stayed employed.

Wiman’s most recent fight came in January 2013, a TKO loss to then-surging lightweight T.J. Grant. After that, however, he kind of disappeared from the scene.

It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for an eight-year veteran of the sport to simply disappear. And Wiman isn’t the most communicative guy when it comes to keeping his fans in the loop, of course. He rarely, if ever, does interviews, and generally doesn’t like talking about himself.

But now, Wiman has quietly returned to active competition, to what end he’s not sure.

“Knowing that you don’t know the future, you’re not going able to put the puzzle together before you have the pieces I just have a rough draft and an optimistic hope, and then you go from there and be OK with the hand you’re dealt,” he said.

His outlook on the future might be unique, but in reality, the explanation for his absence isn’t particularly extraordinary.

“I just wanted to take some time to lick my wounds and maybe get some surgeries to start fixing my body up a little bit…I’ve ignored them for a while,” Wiman (15-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC) said.

On Saturday, he meets Isaac Vallie-Flagg (14-5-1 MMA, 1-2 UFC) on the FOX Sports 1-televised main card of UFC Fight Night 57 at Austin, Texas’ Frank Erwin Center. It’s his first fight in just shy of two years, but he thinks the time off might have helped him become a better fighter.

“Often times, you take a little time off for some reason; maybe you come back to the basics a little more,” he said. “But sometimes when I don’t train for a while, I pick it up a lot better, maybe because I’ve been trying new things and over-thinking things, but sometimes if you take time off and regroup, you come back and you’re better.

“That being said, you need time in the gym to advance your skills. You have to spend your time in the gym, but you also have to think outside the box and regroup sometimes.”

Wiman said injuries have been an ever-present part of his career, as they are for most fighters. But he doesn’t feel like he’s closing in on the end of his competitive career.

“Sometimes I feel old physically, but I don’t really feel like I’ve been around forever,” he said. “You look back, and it’s like, yeah, it’s been a while. So yeah, I’m grateful for the experience and happy to have it, and happy to be healthy enough to do it again.”

On Saturday, Wiman will have a significant edge in experience over Vallie-Flagg, not so much in number of fights they’ve respectively fought, but experience in the octagon against high-level competition. Vallie-Flagg, a member of the famed Jackson-Winkeljohn’s MMA, has fought in promotions such as the now-defunct Strikeforce, but he is likely fighting for his job after two consecutive losses.

Wiman’s expectations, meanwhile, are pretty low when it comes to what’s next. He used to visualize before fights, but he found out that what he thought would happen in the cage never actually did.

It seemed about as useless as telling himself he was going to quit MMA, so he’s just decided to stay in the present and see what happens.

“It’s pretty draining and challenging, and I’m always thinking one fight at a time,” he said. “You give it your all and go one step at a time.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 57, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show, available on SiriusXM channel 92, is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.