Trust Kiwi UFC fighter Shane Young to find a positive spin from the inconvenience of a late opponent change.
The effervescent 27-year-old was in a transit lounge at San Francisco during one of many pit stops en route to Abu Dhabi's 'Fight Island', when he received news that Nate Landwehr had been withdrawn from their featherweight clash at UFC 253, after contracting coronavirus.
For the self-proclaimed 'Captain Chill', the announcement was merely water off the metaphorical duck's back, at least until he realised he wouldn't be left stranded.
"I was upset at first, because I thought I had no fight," Young tells Newshub. "I had the old school mindset where, if someone pulls out, that's it - I thought I'd just be here with the boys.
"I probably sulked for about a minute and then [teammate Israel Adesanya] said, 'nah, they'll find you someone'.
"To be honest, I welcome the challenge of having to adapt."
Young's new opponent is Ludovit Klein, a 16-2, 25-year-old striker who'll make his promotional debut and become Slovakia's first-ever UFC fighter.
Young will return to the Octagon, after a near 20-month absence since his victory over Austin Arnett at UFC 234 in Melbourne, back in February 2019.
The long hiatus has the Napier native - who strings together sentences with the same speed and unpredictability as his striking combinations - overflowing with enthusiasm for some combat, after a period of "mental, physical and spiritual growth".
But don't call it a comeback. Reinvigorated and refocused by fatherhood, 'Sugar' says he's rediscovered his love for the game.
"It's all new," he says. "It's not a comeback, it's a whole next step.
"Time is just a social construct - 19 months is nothing. What I've had between those points is so much development as a person.
"It's rekindled a lot of things I'd forgotten about when I was a kid, the reasons why I fought. Now I'm fighting for my son and I'm fighting for my team.
"I've had a whole year-and-a-half of not having any opponents to work on more fundamentals, add all these new things that are staples of City Kickboxing."
Last October, Young was with his teammates in Melbourne for Adesanya's title-winning fight against Robert Whittaker, when he discovered he was to become a dad.
That revelation proved to be the spark that re-ignited his competitive flame. The very next week, Young was back with his CKB brothers, who had eagerly anticipated his return and dished out an unapologetically brutal 'welcome home'.
"They put in on me when I first got back," Young laughs. "There were a few times where I thought 'I'm not going to sparring'.
"They all had fights, and were in camps and stuff, but I was still there trying to help them.
"Looking back on it, I was given so much room to develop. They knew I was in this game for the long haul, so that gave me that time and space I needed to do the mental work I needed to do, and then come out of it."
Young has always openly addressed his own mental challenges and advocated for others being equally so, taking that message to the mic during his last post-fight interview.
That was another indication of what Young describes as his own growing maturity, both as a person and a fighter.
"I'm taking things way more seriously," he says, reflecting on his evolution.
"I realise, for a lot of my career - especially after I flew to Australia to win the XFC title - I started half-arsing things, doing just enough to get by, riding this ego from all the positive things people said to me.
"But I now know that all that stuff is so momentary and fickle. What I am is a lifetime martial artist.
"I still have 10 years left, but that's a window. From then, I have 40 more years of life to go on, but for now, I'm like a dog with a bone."
In the more immediate term, Young's goal is straightforward - stay busy. Eager to make up for lost time, he's aiming for no fewer than three more bouts over the coming 12 months.
When you consider the only misstep in Young's UFC tenure to date is a loss to current featherweight world champion Alexander Volkanovski - a fight he accepted on seven days' notice - his momentum could be easily recaptured with an impressive outing against Klein on Sunday (NZ time).
The only genuine adjustment Young has had to make for Klein is resetting his striking to prepare for the Slovakian's left-handed stance, where trainer, roommate and former world champion kickboxer Mike Angove - a southpaw himself - has been instrumental.
Victory would give Young three straight wins, the kind of streak UFC matchmakers begin to notice.
"I feel like I have an advantage over [Klein] everywhere. I see me dominating him in every facet of this game and finishing him - that's that."
Empowered by some of mixed martial arts' brightest minds and his three City Kickboxing cohorts in Abu Dhabi, Young believes his best is yet to come, (re)starting Sunday, when he aims to kick off a flawless night for the four Kiwis, culminating in Israel Adesanya's middleweight title defence against Paulo Costa.
"I truly believe that, with the right gameplan and a little prep fitness-wise, our team can beat any fighter in the entire world," he says.
"It's not just me, it's not just my skillset, it's the skillset of the whakapapa [ancestry] that we've come from, years and years of tradition.
"I used to be all about setting realistic goals, but when you're with a champion team like CKB, you can get unrealistic with those goals.
"I'm only getting fitter, faster, stronger… this is the most dangerous I've ever been in my entire fight career, for so many reasons."
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