James Irvin on Alessio Sakara: "They gave me the perfect match up."

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James "The Sandman" Irvin will return to the UFC after an absence of nearly two years when he faces Alessio Sakara at UFC Live on Versus March 21.

Irvin, a former WEC heavyweight champion, is known for his explosive striking and athleticism. At one time he owned a tie for the fastest official knockout in UFC history, an eight-second victory over Houston Alexander at UFC Fight Night 13.

"The Sandman" has struggled in recent years with knee injuries, and after a loss to Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 14 he was suspended after testing positive for banned pain killers. Since that time Irvin has been forced to withdraw from two planned UFC matches after re-injuring his knee.

"The past six months have been the best six months of my life," Irvin recently told Heavy.com. "With my last fight, Anderson Silva just put it on me, and after that I was suspended by the athletic commission. I've had three knee surgeries in the last three years and it's been kind of a downward spiral for me, and I started using pain medication. Now that I have taken the time off, my knee is back at 100%. So being able to train these past six months has been the best thing in my life and [it has been] the best six months of my career."

The 31-year old from Huntington Beach California will be making his middleweight debut when he steps into the Octagon, and he couldn't be happier to be back. He's also pleased by the opponent he's going to be facing, Italian striker Alessio Sakara.

"The UFC definitely gave me a favor with this fight," said Irvin. "I'm not saying it is going to be easy, but they gave me the perfect matchup. He's a brawler with some pro boxing experience and I feel really good fighting against guys who want to stand and trade. Out of all the potential fights I could have had, this is the best stylistic matchup for me, and it is going to be a great fight between the two of us."

Irvin, who has fought the majority of his career at heavyweight and light-heavyweight, will be making his first UFC appearance as a middleweight.

"Well, I started my career as a heavyweight and my first fight in the UFC was in the heavyweight division," Irvin explained. "I was just really big from playing professional football, so I was more of a bodybuilder and most of my training was lifting. Over the years in MMA, I started lifting less and less and my body weight came down. But to tell you the truth, the biggest reason [for me dropping to middleweight] is my range. I seem to do really well against guys who are shorter than me and I'll be one of the tallest guys at 185-lbs. I think I will do well against guys who I will have reach on."

Irvin believes it will be a while before he's ready to fight men like Nate Marquardt, Chael Sonnen, and Demian Maia, who are atop the middleweight division. But he does have some ideas on other fighters he would like to face in the future.

"I've wanted to fight guys like that for a long time and I believe I am a few wins away from getting to them," said Irvin. "But guys like Marquardt and Demian Maia are way out of my league right now. Especially a guy like Marquardt. He is probably little too much for me to handle right now. That guy is in the top ten for a reason. He is a bad ass and so is Demian Maia. I would most like to fight guys like Chris Leben and Patrick Cote because stylistically, they would be great matchups for me."

Irvin has a career record of 14-5 (1 NC), and suffered a first round knockout loss to Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 14 in his last outing. Sakara is 14-7 (1 NC) in his career, and is coming off a split decision victory over Thales Leites at UFC 101.