It's been awhile.

In fact, it's been 19 months since Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre has seen the inside of the Octagon.

After suffering multiple injuries, forcing him out of a much-anticipated showdown against Nick Diaz, "Rush" is ready to get back into the swing of things as he attempts to unify the promotions 170-pound titles at UFC 154 on Nov. 17, 2012 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

During the long layoff, the French-Canadian wrecking machine says he has ‘rekindled' a fire he lost during his break and says that come fight night, he will be the challenger fighting the champion in ‘The Natural Born Killer.'

St. Pierre spoke about the trials and tribulations he has gone through over the past year and a half at today's (Sept. 27, 2012) UFC 154 press conference.

"The last year I've been able to take a break mentally and physically. I'd lost the fire and passion a little bit. After everything I've been through, I've come back motivated and stronger and I've rekindled the fire."

"Rush" say he is now more motivated than ever and says that though he was known as one of the most disciplined athletes as far as training goes, he now does it because he wants to, not because he has to and he is determined to not let the fight game catch up to him:

"I was at a point before my injury where I went to train because I had to, not because I wanted to. I lost motivation. I learned in my career that sometimes you need to break something to fix it before it breaks by itself. I don't need to lose a fight to improve my training. I need to stay on top of the game before the fight game catches up on me. The long layoff allowed me to think about stuff. I needed to make my training more efficient for myself."

Though Condit is the UFC's interim champion and Georges St. Pierre the ‘real' 170-pound kingpin, "GSP" says that on fight night he is the one fighting for the belt:

"In my contract, I was supposed to defend my title every year and I didn't do it. For me, I see Carlos Condit as the champion and I'm getting a title shot."

One way or another, when the dust settles at UFC 154, there will indeed be no question as to who exactly is the UFC's wetlerweight king.

Who will it be?