Vinny Magalhaes is training harder than ever, rounding out his skills, as he looks for a UFC return according to mmaweekly.com.

"Focusing on my striking game, my wrestling, and just focus on MMA and nothing else. I don't want to do like I was 3 or 4 years ago, I was doing a little bit of everything, but I wasn't great at anything," Magalhaes said.

Magalhaes also states that he didn't have the right mentality in the past. Magalhaes is a world-class Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner, placing first in many grappling competitions. As such, Magalhaes states that his grappling became his ace in the hole. He began depending on that sole skill set to win him fights believing that if anyone took him down, he would simply submit them.

"With that mentality I just thought well if people take me down, I'm going to submit them. Then I would lose fights like I lost to Eliot Marshall cause the whole fight was standing, when I had a clear advantage on the ground," Magalhaes said.

As Magalhaes points out, the turning point for him was a knee injury in 2010, sidelining him for six months. During that time he was able to see his teammates, like Forrest Griffin, train in all facets of MMA and Magalhaes knew he had to improve.

"As a goal for me, I want to go back to the UFC. I feel like that's where the best fighters are, and I feel like I've groomed my skills to compete against the best guys. What's happening right now, I'm beating people and it's like people are saying you're beating cans, which is not true. But the fans act that way, if you're not in the UFC automatically you're a can, that's just how people see you," Magalhaes said.

Magalhaes, an Ultimate Fighter season 8 runner-up, has found much success since his release from the UFC in mid 2009 after going 0-2 with the promotion. Magalhaes has won five straight fights and is 7-1 over his last eight bouts. This also includes capturing M-1 Global's light heavyweight title by submitting Viktor Nemkov via gogoplata and defending it from Mikhail Zayats, defeating him via third round TKO.

"I want to be one of the best. I want to be a champion one day. Where the best are, they're in the UFC, so that's where I need to go," Magalhaes said.