BOSTON – After a rough 2017, Gian Villante almost certainly was happy to see the calendar turn this month.

But he’s not one to make New Year’s resolutions, at least when it comes to his fighting career. Instead, the light heavyweight believes getting over his two-fight skid is a matter of just wrapping up things once he has an opponent hurt.

That’s something he said he didn’t do when he was stopped in the third round by former champ Mauricio Rua 10 months ago, and when he dropped a split decision to Patrick Cummins in July.

“I’ve had some rough ones, man – ones where I had the guys hurt and don’t finish the guys,” Villante today told MMAjunkie. “It’s something I think I’ve got to fix a little bit. I said it after the ‘Shogun’ fight, where I hurt him and didn’t finish him. The same thing happened with Cummins – I hurt him three or four times that fight and didn’t finish it.

“It’s a matter of when I do hurt the guy, I’ve got to finish the fight. It’s not a matter of if I hurt the guy, it’s when I hurt the guy. I’ve got to get that done this time around.”

This time around, Villante (15-9 MMA, 5-6 UFC) fights Francimar Barroso (19-6 MMA, 4-3 UFC) at UFC 220. The event takes place Saturday at TD Garden in Boston. The main card, which includes two title fights and Villante vs. Barroso, airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Villante had been on an up-and-down run in the UFC before his two-fight slide, and he’s dropped three of his past four. But the flip side of that equation is that in his past four wins, he’s earned three “Fight of the Night” bonuses.

“I do think I have the talent,” Villante said. “People, I’m sure, have seen it – that I do have the talent and the skill set to go pretty far in this division. … I’m a bad matchup for anyone, and I can knock anybody out at any moment. They ain’t gonna get me down to the ground and wrestle me out. I could do a lot of damage in this division, but I have to string together some wins first and see how it goes.

“I can see myself being a champ some day, but it’s a matter of putting the right fights together and getting it going.”

Villante hopes that string starts with Brazil’s Barroso, an opponent who fell into that “right fight” category, on Saturday night.

Barroso is coming off a loss of his own this past September in the Netherlands, where he dropped a decision to Aleksandar Rakic. He has setbacks in two of his past three fights, and Villante believes he knows what he’ll be trying to do once the bell rings.

“He’s a guy who’s going to try to slow it down, get me against the fence and try to take me down,” Villante said. “He’s got a good right hand – powerful dude, just like anyone else. You get to this size, these big dudes, anyone’s powerful or a decent wrestler. In the UFC, everyone’s good. There are no easy fights. But this is a fight that’s a very winnable fight for me, and I like the matchup stylistically.”

From Villante’s end of things, he needs a win, to be certain, to snap the first losing skid he’s had in the UFC. But that’s not going to stop him from wanting to make a statement with how he gets it done.

And regardless of whether or not Barroso might know just what kind of power Villante has, Villante said that power is coming no matter what.

“He can try to harp on, ‘Oh, man, this guy hits hard,’ or he can overlook it,” Villante said. “Either way, I still hit hard. It’s a matter of just doing it. No matter what he’s thinking, it’s still going to happen. (I need to) just get the knockout. I’d like to do it quick, but I’d like the knockout whenever it happens.”

For more on UFC 220, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.