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Michael “Joker” Guymon of Lake Forest, Calif., has had his battles with depression and anxiety, but the 12-year veteran is ready to make his return to MMA.

Guymon, 37, retired after his loss to DaMarques Johnson at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 in January 2011, but once he got a handle on his mental issues he realized he still had plenty of fight left in him. So he decided to make a comeback and not at his former weight of 170 pounds. Guymon (12-5-1) has cut down to 155 pounds to take on Chris Leyva (9-3) in the main event of BAMMA USA: Badbeat 5 on Friday at 7 p.m. at Commerce Casino.

“I’ve got wins at middleweight, welterweight and now I want to make a third weight class, lightweight,” Guymon told bammausa.com. “To be able to pull that off would be really important and special to me, especially, going downward. Most people are lazy and they’ll go upward because they can eat and do all that stuff. I’m doing it the hard way. I’m cutting down each weight class.

Continue Reading » Joker’s Coming Back Leaner and Meaner than Ever