Nicolas Dalby announces return to UFC with emotional statement

It’s taken three years, but Nicolas Dalby is back in the UFC.

“Lokomotivo” announced his return to the promotion with a celebratory Instagram post on Monday in which he also stated that he will be competing at the Sept. 28 show in Copenhagen.

Dalby (17-3-1, 1 NC) most recently competed for Europe’s Cage Warriors promotion, where he won three of his first four fights and an interim welterweight belt before battling Ross Houston to a bloody no contest this past June in a championship unification bout.

In his UFC debut back in May 2015, Dalby won a split decision over Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos to improve to 14-0 as a pro and next fought future welterweight title contender Darren Till to a draw in his second outing. He then lost three straight and was released by the promotion.

Dalby’s announcement included mention of his struggles with addiction and praise for his fiancee Dzifa for helping him through a difficult stretch in his life.

“Besides the obvious happiness from getting that message there’s more to this moment than you might think,” Dalby wrote. “As many of you know I’ve had struggles with depression and because of that a lot of drinking. This affected many people in my life but especially my fiancee. So a year-and-a-half ago when I decided to not only ‘just’ deal with my depression, but also chose to take up fighting again we found out we were pregnant AND I got fired from my job and suddenly had to find a new one in the middle of fight camp, I knew it was a monumental hurdle WE had to overcome.

“Besides the double-whammy of getting ready for a fight while already fighting depression we also had to fix the major issues we had in our relationship because of my actions. While also dealing with the fact that we were about to become parents. (Talk about pressure!). To those who don’t know: fighting is not an individual sport even though it could seem like it. Besides training at the right gym and having the right trainers it’s especially important to have a safe haven at home where you can relax and gather energy/focus in between work and training. Somehow we managed to navigate through all above obstacles while my fiancee also found the energy to help me by cooking healthy meals when I was too tired, giving me a shoulder to cry on and picking me up when I had critical moments of self doubt and generally just provided me with all the love and comfort I needed to perform in the gym and the cage.”

Dalby called the signing an “acknowledgment” of how he and Dzifa “overcame adversity together” to reach his goal of returning to the UFC. He added that he has signed a bout agreement for UFC Copenhagen, but did not name his opponent.