LAS VEGAS – For UFC lightweight Mark Madsen, just stepping into the cage on Saturday night is already quite an accomplishment. Sure, he wants to have his hand raised at the end of the fight, as well, but these days, there are also more important reasons to compete.

It’s been 17 months since Madsen last set foot in the octagon, and the time away has tested the mettle of the 36-year-old Olympic medalist in ways he never could have imagined.

“Time flies,” Madsen told MMA Junkie at Wednesday media day at the UFC Apex. “How does it feel to be back? It feels absolutely amazing. Can’t tell you how proud I am, how thankful I am to be back.

“Might sound strange, but the last year, my family and I have been going through a lot of adversity. It actually started at my last fight. I broke my jaw early in the second round. I had to push through the fight. Went back home, got surgery on it. That surgery got infected. I needed a second surgery. When I thought I was ready to go again, I tested positive for COVID. When I was over that, we got the very unfortunate news that my wife was diagnosed with MS disease, which actually led me to call the UFC and ask for a leave. I mean, I had to take my full focus and put it on on the things that were going on with my wife and MS disease – and you probably won’t believe it, but on top of that, our house had a sewage water leak, which turned out to be a black mold infestation, so the last eight months, my family and I have been relocated.”

A lifelong wrestler who has long been a dominant force in the sport, Madsen has spent his life battling adversity on the mat, but the emotional toll of hurdle after hurdle have clearly taken their toll. Still, Madsen said there was never any discussion about potentially walking away from the sport.

In fact, it was quite the opposite.

With his wife facing an ongoing battle against the debilitating autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis, Madsen felt a responsibility to fight again.

“There’s been absolutely no conversation of not returning to MMA,” Madsen said. “This fight, this opportunity is about proving to myself – more importantly, proving to my wife – that we won’t let a disease determine anything in our life. I mean, we have a chronic disease. My wife has a chronic disease that she has to deal with the rest of her life. That means I, as a husband, have to deal with that the rest of my life.

“One of her big fears with this diagnosis was that that would actually lead to me not being able to fight anymore, that it would mean that we would not have the opportunities that we had, so this is actually about, you know, proving that if we believe, if we dream, even though there’s disease, we can still overcome and come after it. This is about proving for my wife that anything is still possible.”

While discussing what will happen in the cage seems somewhat trivial considering what he’s enduring outside of it, Madsen (10-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) does face stiff competition in veteran UFC Hall of Famer Clay Guida (36-20 MMA, 16-14 UFC) at Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 29 event, which airs on ESPN from the UFC Apex.

The matchup serves as the night’s co-main event and could prove an opportunity for Madsen to announce himself as a real player in the UFC’s lightweight division. Undefeated in his MMA career thus far, Madsen debuted for the UFC in his native Denmark for competing in Las Vegas at this past March’s UFC 248, where it seemed he was primed for potential star-making opportunities before he was forced into an extended layoff.

But Madsen believes he’s ready to begin that pursuit again – and this time with an entirely new perspective on the goal.

“It’s been a crazy period,” Madsen said. “I mean, it’s been challenging, but at the same time, we’ve come out with new insight. As a family, we’ve bonded in a different way. I mean, to put it another way, we have to find a way to make the last year the best thing that happened in our life, and right now, I’m back. I have a fight. It’s about going out there and then performing my best.”

To see the full interview with Madsen, check out the video below.