Charles Rosa is looking to make 2017 the biggest year of his career.The 30-year-old Massachusetts native turned South Florida transplant spent the large majority of the last year on the sidelines, and all the time away from the cage only stoked his hunger for bigger things. Rosa funneled most of his energy into crushing sessions with his world class teammates at American Top Team, and believes the improvements made over his hiatus will be visible immediately upon return.And while part time chef and full time ass kicker has nothing official on the books as of now, Rosa is hoping that changes in the coming weeks.“I’m looking to get back in there as soon as possible. I’ll actually have to wait until April because of how USADA works with the testing pool and all of that. Once that is taken care of there are no other obstacles and I’ll be ready to go.“I’ve been working my ass off inside the gym,” Rosa told FloCombat. “I’ve been on the shelf for awhile but I haven’t stopped training. People are going to see a completely different version of me as a fighter. I’m coming off a win in my last fight where I beat Kyle Bochniak in Boston. That’s my hometown and I got the job done in front of that crowd.“I’m going to return with a lot of momentum and and this is going to be the best version of myself fans have ever seen inside the Octagon.”Jan 17, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Charles Rosa (red) kicks Kyle Bochniak (blue) during a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night at the TD Garden. Rosa won in three rounds by unanimous decision. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY SportsDuring his time away from the Octagon, Rosa did not keep his training strictly to the confines of the American Top Team facility in Coconut Creek, Florida. The scrappy featherweight wanted to expand his horizons on all fronts and set out on a vacation that not only took him around the globe, but put him dead smack in the middle of storied scenes notorious for their historic fighting cultures.Rosa prefers to jump into the grit and learn by exposure, and that was certainly the case in 2016.“I’ve been able to go on some cool trips during my time away,” Rosa said. “I went to Holland and worked on my kickboxing. That was a great experience where I learned a lot because the Dutch are some of the best kickboxers in the world. I also went to Thailand to work on my Muay Thai and they have absolute killer strikers over there as well. That was a discipline I’d never really been able to work on much, but I had two training sessions a day and made huge improvements on my clinch and striking from the clinch.“I also found time to treat those trips as a vacation of sorts, but the majority of time spent on that journey was focused on training. I’m going to return to the Octagon with a bunch of new skills and I’m ready to show them off.”When Rosa makes his return in the spring of 2017, he will be looking at the bout as his “first fight” rather than his next.When the ATT representative made his official debut against Dennis Siver back in 2014, it wasn’t exactly the first showing Rosa had in mind.Jan 17, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Charles Rosa (red) fights Kyle Bochniak (blue) during a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night at the TD Garden. Rosa won in three rounds by unanimous decision. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY SportsRosa’s career had begun just two years earlier and he quickly built a buzz by steamrolling his competition up and down the east coast. Being undefeated through nine fights earned him a call from the UFC, but it wasn’t the transition he’d envisioned. Rather than signing on with the biggest promotion in MMA, then getting a full camp to fully prepare for his debut, Rosa was tapped to step in against Dennis Siver when his original opponent Robert Whiteford fell out due to injury.The chance to face a top 10 opponent and land a UFC contract wasn’t something Rosa was going to pass up, and his decision to do so resulted in a highly competitive back-and-forth affair at UFC Fight Night 53 in Stockholm, Sweden.That said, Rosa is looking at his return to action as start he was never allowed to have back in 2014. He’s going to make the absolute most of the his next run.“I had an interesting start to my time with the UFC,” Rosa recalled. “My debut came on five days notice against a top 10 guy in Dennis Siver. I put up a ‘Fight of the Night’ performance and it was a very close fight, but it wasn’t the way I’d always envisioned getting into the UFC. I always envisioned it would be this big thing where I’d get a full camp and plenty of time to announce to my friend and family I’d be fighting on the biggest stage in the world.“I was thrown to the wolves right away and I did well. My second fight took place in hometown and I walked away with a submission victory. My third fight took place in Mexico City at 10,000 feet against Yair Rodriguez.”Jan 18, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Charles Rosa (red) before a featherweight bout at UFC Fight Night at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY SportsRosa and Rodriguez engaged in a 15 minute battle where both men had pockets of success in their respective games. The end result saw The Ultimate Fighter Latin American season one winner’s hand raised, and even though Rosa is a year and a half removed from the tilt, he still feels the victory should have been his that night in Mexico City.“I mean that guy is a superstar now and I honestly believe I won that fight,” Rosa said. “I lost a split decision on the judges scorecards in Mexico to a Mexican fighter in a bout that took place at 10,000 feet.“I don’t think the elevation has as much relevance as fighting a guy in his backyard and the scoring going his way. He’s fought five times since then and won them all. He’s undefeated in the UFC and has become a superstar while I’m pretty much sitting on the shelf. I won my last fight and had a strong performance, but there has been a lot of time pass since then. My next fight in April is going to be a fresh start and it’s going to kick off all the things I envision doing in the UFC.”As Rosa prepares to ignite his comeback, he’s well aware the promotion he’s returning to looks and operates differently from the one he last competed for.“Fighting is all about adapting and I think the ability to do that will be crucial this year,” Rosa said. “The UFC is obviously changing and fighters are going to have to adapt to the situation. I’m going to keep an open mind and keep doing what I love. That’s fighting and no matter what is going on around me, my focus is always going to be on that.“I want to fight the best in the world because that’s the only way to become the best. That’s my dream and that’s what I’m going to do.”