Reece McLaren on his flyweight title trajectory leading into ONE 158

Reece McLaren is set to return to the ONE circle after more than a year away. At ONE 158 on June 3, 'Lightning' will take on Wei Xie, a fighter currently riding a three-fight win streak.

Leading into his bout with Xie, McLaren spoke to Sportskeeda MMA's Dylan Bowker to talk about his upcoming contest and his flyweight title aspirations should he be successful upon his ONE Championship return.

"I was in line to fight for that title in 2018 and it eluded me then. It's stayed eluding me. I honestly feel if I get two dominant wins, they can't deny me another shot at the flyweight belt."

The 2018 incident that McLaren is referring to is a scheduled bout with divisional champion Adriano Moraes that never occurred. Moraes was scheduled to defend his title against 'Lightning' at ONE Championship: Visions of Victory in March 2018. Moraes suffered a knee injury and was forced to withdraw. The bout was never rescheduled.

"Yeah, the Grand Prix came along and we were put in that so for us, it was like job security. Like, 'Sweet, I'm gonna get three fights this year' and a few things didn't go quite the way we would have liked them in that Grand Prix, but we've come out the other end a much better person and fighter. I'm just excited for this next one."

Reece McLaren discusses some of the health issues he faced prior to returning to the ONE circle

Reece McLaren also eluded to some health-related issues he's had prior to his anticipated return at ONE 158 on Friday. When asked about the problems, McLaren told Sportskeeda MMA:

"Yeah, it was a scare. I believe we did the right thing and ONE did the right thing and postponed this fight till now, so it's all happy days, man."

Those health issues contributed to McLaren's long layoff, but the Australian fighter is excited to get back into the ONE circle and work his way back up the rankings.

"Yeah, there's just so much that's happened then. So many lessons have been learned, you know. It's a long time coming. It feels like it's come full circle and it's funny, I said it to my wife the other day, I was like, 'The last one I just wanted to get in and get it done and get home and this one, I can't wait to just get in there.' I just can't wait for it."

Catch our interview with Reece McLaren below: