Nathan Quarry (Pictures) has learned to fight again.

The 35-year-old middleweight began with the jab. His boxing coach told him not to bother pulling on gloves. They stood in one spot for an hour. Quarry snapped out his fist. Again, another. Later he threw crosses.

Only one hour, but the workout was brutal. Quarry's body had atrophied. He had lost pounds of muscle.

Three months earlier, in December 2005, he had undergone a spinal fusion. A degenerated disc was removed, and two of his vertebrae were screwed together. He had been battling back problems for years, but after his knockout loss to Rich Franklin (Pictures) he had finally turned to surgery.

Quarry spent six days in the hospital afterward. When he was released, he started exercising. His first activity was a walk down the hallway.

"The next day I had to completely take off because that beat me up too badly," he told Sherdog.com.

But after a day of rest, Quarry walked the hallway again, making it farther. The next day he went farther. Within weeks he was hiking mountains just outside Las Vegas.

At three months he was relearning the jab and at six months he was back on the mats. As soon as his surgeon gave him the OK to grapple, Quarry had gone straight to the UFC gym in Las Vegas. He has been training a full MMA regimen ever since.

Make no mistake, the pain Quarry endured during recovery was great. He suffered tremendously, but he pushed through it.

"I knew that this was what I needed to do to get back into fighting shape, to get back into contention and work my way towards the title," he said. "So that's what I did."

Now, nearly two years after his operation, Quarry returns Wednesday at UFC Fight Night against Pete Sell (Pictures) in Las Vegas. He says only two things have changed during his hiatus: He's become more well-rounded, and he's no longer affiliated with Team Quest.

"With all the time that I had off, I had a chance to really stop and think about my training and see what I felt would make me a better athlete," Quarry said. "I realized that my game had been at a standstill for a long time."

While he had close friends on the celebrated team and the sparring sessions were top-notch, Quarry said he had to look elsewhere for the instruction he needed.

"I went out and got these boxing coaches, kickboxing coaches, the black belts in jiu-jitsu," he said, "and the main reason was that those things weren't available at Team Quest."

Eventually Quarry approached the team's Portland, Ore., leaders and expressed his concern. He says he made it clear that he wanted to stay with Team Quest, but he asked for certain concessions. In Quarry's view, he was paying outside trainers for coaching he couldn't get at Team Quest while still paying the team "quite a bit" of his fight purses.

Quarry says the conversation turned ugly: "I was told that it didn't matter what I did, that I was always going to be unhappy and that they weren't going to bend over backwards to try and make that happen. And, quite literally, I was told that I had the biggest ego of anyone in the gym and that I was tearing the gym apart."

In the end Quarry couldn't reach an agreement with the team. "It came down to a business decision, and I had to do what I felt was best for me," he says. "And they felt that by me not being there at Team Quest, it was best for them."

Team Quest captain Matt Lindland (Pictures) wouldn't give a detailed account of Quarry's departure, but he did say via text message that he feels Quarry is just a sad, angry guy.

"Nate Quarry's ability to understand business arrangements is commensurate with his ability to avoid Rich Franklin (Pictures)'s left hand," Lindland said.

Regardless of who's in his corner, the TUF alumnus will complete a long road back when he takes on Sell. Quarry's first meeting with the Long Island native in August 2005 ended in controversy, after referee Cecil Peoples arguably stopped the bout too soon.

Both fighters agreed that a rematch was appropriate, but Quarry moved on to a title shot and then surgery. Now, more than two years later, the rematch is set.

"I look at this fight on Wednesday with Pete as [if it were] the first time we fought," Quarry says. "I don't see how our previous match-up has anything to do with this. He's going to come out there looking to win in brutal fashion just like I am."

After everything Quarry's gone through -- his violent loss to Franklin, his surgery and recovery, his struggle with Team Quest -- eking out a decision won't do.

Win or lose, he wants a decisive finish.

"I've had four fights in the UFC, and they've been four spectacular knockouts, especially the last one," said Quarry, joking about Franklin knocking him out. "That's what the fans want to see … knockouts, and I've been involved in some great ones."

Fans also want to see comebacks, and when Quarry steps back in the cage, they'll be watching for one.