On May 30, “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 1” featherweight winner Rony Jason will have officially spent an entire year away from the octagon.

His last fight, at UFC Fight Night 67, was supposed to have meant a much-needed recovery. Coming off an undigested split-decision loss to Robbie Peralta, it took Jason three minutes and 31 seconds to finish Damon Jackson with a triangle choke that earned him a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus.

All was well, until it wasn’t anymore. Jason (14-5 MMA, 4-2 UFC), it was later announced, had failed a test for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. His win was overturned and his bonus was rescinded. Jason fought and vowed to get his lawyers involved, but the “B sample” didn’t leave much room for discussion.

Now, done with a nine-month suspension, Jason maintains there was no wrongdoing and claims he can only speculate about what actually happened.

“They wanted me to admit to it so I’d get a lower suspension, and I said I wasn’t going to do that,” Jason told MMAjunkie. “I’m not going to confess to a crime I didn’t commit.

“I’m a gullible guy. I’m at a restaurant with people, I’ll eat what they give me to eat. I’ll drink the water they give me to drink. Sometimes I’ll be finishing up a training session in the locker room and ask for a sip of water. And I’ll drink it. I’m innocent like that. But not anymore. Now I’m wiser.”

The wiser version of Jason is anxious to return. So much so that he is getting his weight down and training with no scheduled fight, hoping to possibly fill in for an injured fighter. Confessing he still had hopes of being in UFC 198’s stacked card, the featherweight says there have been unofficial talks with the UFC about a possible August return.

When I’m here, I join them in ‘Narnia’

The year away, he says, had its ups and downs. But mostly, it was an opportunity to enjoy his family and tone down the recklessness about his own career that came with the certainty of a paycheck every three months or so.

That effort to change his ways has been greatly helped by his “Evolucao Thai” training partners, Jason said.

“It’s a strong team technically, but to me the most important part is the basic human material and the discipline,” Jason said of the team based in Curitiba, Parana, over 1,800 miles away from his hometown in Quixada, Ceara. “Out of 50 people, only me and another two or three guys drink. The rest are insanely focused. They just teach and train. It’s like a parallel universe.

“When I’m here, I join them in ‘Narnia.’ When I’m away, I’ll party, play around. But here, it’s different. Sometimes I wanna grab a beer on the weekend and I have to beg someone to go. And I still can’t find anyone. They’ll say they’re going running in the park and I’m like, ‘You spent the entire week training, and you wanna go to the park?’

“But it’s good because I end up caving, saying fine, and going with them.”

While Jason said he appreciates the added focus on curbing his vices, the “TUF: Brazil 1” alumnus doesn’t see his partying ways as a problem. In spite of being fined after admitting to a DUI last year, he believes that his life outside the octagon so far has been no impediment to the one inside it.

“I’m happy this way, and I think fighters need to be happy,” Jason said. “Some guys are happy going to church. Some guys are happy running marathons. Some guys are happy drinking beer. I don’t get in anyone’s way, I don’t hurt anyone. I like going to low-key bars and blowing off steam. Then I go home, sleep. It’s never been a problem.

“On the contrary, I go to my fights happier, relaxed. If I know I did what I wanted to do, I feel better.”

To some, it might seem strange that a fighter would admit to his fondness for the occasional beer – “or whiskey, when it’s time to cut weight.” But, when talking to the outspoken Jason, don’t expect anything less than candidness.

It’s with the same level of honesty, for instance, that he discusses his rocky relationship with the division’s 145-pound limit.

“I’m working on getting it down and staying in shape, but I’m still eating what I like – drinking Coca-Cola, eating ‘coxinha’ (a notoriously fatty deep-fried Brazilian snack),” he joked. “My problem with the diet is that I cheat. I even cheat myself, if you can believe that. I’ll treat myself to pizza one day, knowing that I’ll have to work myself to death on the next.

“I cheat too much. That’s why I suffer. But when I manage to stick to my diet, it’s cool. It used to be way worse. Now I know how to cut weight and have people helping me do that during fight week.”

Fans hit harder than fighters

Looking back on his journey since being crowned featherweight winner of the massively-watched opening season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” and joining the UFC in 2012, Jason admits it has sometimes been a heartbreaking ride.

“Fans hit harder than the fighters,” Jason reflected. “It hurts a lot more. The punches, the cuts, they heal. But some things the fans say never do. Take (Jose) Aldo: the guy had been undefeated for 10 years, a perfect example, doesn’t party, doesn’t go out, you’ll never catch him doing anything wrong. And people still made jokes about him. Now you imagine me, a mere mortal?

“I used to worry, but now it’s kind of whatever. I try to listen to the people who are close to me and know what I go through. Of course some fans are worth the apologies and thank yous. But others just pretend they’re fans to talk crap on social media.”

The new-and-improved Jason’s immediate motivation to come back might be improving the “totally horrible” UFC record to which two losses and one no-contest have contributed. But the Brazilian featherweight also has some recently-acquired plans for the future.

“My plan is to beat whoever comes my way,” Jason said. “My record doesn’t match the fighter that I am. I’m angry about it, and I want to take it out on someone.

“I’ve always thought about the belt, of course. The only reason why I wasn’t so fixated on it was because Jose Aldo was the champion. But now I have a focus. I don’t think Conor McGregor is worthy of having my division’s belt. With anyone else, I’m sort of OK. But I actually train better knowing he is the champion. When I’m tired, I think of him and give it an extra push.”

Oh, and about that aforementioned candidness? It also applies to his views on fellow fighters – champions in other weight divisions and all.

“It’d be awesome to fight a guy like, say, Diego Sanchez,” Jason analyzed. “He’d plant his feet, I’d plant mine and we’d trade until one of us collapsed. But guys like Dominick Cruz and T.J. Dillashaw, I don’t like that. It’d be like throwing a chicken inside a cage and having me follow it.

“They want to hit, but don’t want to get hit. They want to play alone. They take the video game controller and won’t share it!”

Hoping to address his octagon homesickness soon, there’s not much else for Jason to do but wait. In the meantime, he has a message for the fans.

“Jason never dies,” he said.”And when he comes back, he comes back stronger. You’re going to see a new and improved Jason. In the head, too.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.