With seven live fights, as well as an appearance on The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia, "The Celtic Kid" has racked up quite the resume, but is looking to snap a two-fight losing streak when he faces Serbia's Bojan Velickovic in Sydney on Sunday.

Since that reality show taping in 2014, he has fought all seven of his fights at lightweight, but after an injury-disrupted 2017, he will step into the octagon having moved back to welterweight for the first time as a professional in the UFC. And that weight change has its advantages.

"Just being able to eat more, and stay fuelled, especially during fight week," Matthews said on Friday. "Everything would be lethargic, but I'm doing two sessions today and eating three or four full meals today and making weight tomorrow.

"In terms of the training camp, just putting size on, putting quality muscle on and keep my explosiveness from lightweight. I was explosive for a lightweight and these guys are bigger and slower, so hopefully I can keep that speed up for this fight."

Matthews was 4-1 in the UFC before a pair of losses in his last two fights, to Americans Kevin Lee and Andrew Holbrook.

"I could sit here and say that the weight cuts affected me, but I probably could have dug that little bit extra deeper and won them," he said. "This time there's going to be no excuses.

"I think I'm gonna show my skill set and potential in this fight, and try and make a statement. If I can win this fight, it puts me right back where I was before the last two fights."

Velickovic is no pushover: he has two wins, two losses and a draw in his five UFC fights, most recently going the distance in a decision loss to highly rated Englishman Darren Till back in September.

"He's very tough, very resilient," Matthews said. "I don't think he's been finished in any of his losses, so I'm definitely going to try to be the first guy to finish him in a fight. He just sort of keeps a steady pace throughout the fight, he doesn't try and rush, doesn't try and force the fight to go anywhere. If someone takes him down, he'll just play on the ground, if it's stand up, he'll stand up."

Steady pace is right. "Serbian Steel" has only had one early stoppage in those five encounters, and even that was a knockout win in the last 25 seconds of the final round.

"He hasn't had too many finishes in the UFC," Matthews said. "So I'm looking to impose my will, take the fight where I want to go."

A shiner on his left eye is evidence of the work Matthews has been putting into training as he worked on adding size first before shifting the focus in the last couple of weeks before the fight.

"We actually focus more on the speed, more on the explosiveness," he said. "Some of these guys are gonna be a bit taller, maybe a bit bigger, so I wanna use my speed to try to cut my angles, get around them, land hard shots - and if they're taller, try to get under them for the take-downs."

And as for the black eye? It's not a problem.

"That's what you get for sparring in fight week," he said. "Last sparring session on Monday, just a knuckle sticking out of the MMA glove, just copped a nick ... but it's fine, it's not sore. It's not gonna get in the way at all."

Losing streaks can be hard to shake, but this shift in weight class could be just what Matthews needs to reignite his run in the UFC - and his path beyond this weekend is already planned out.

"Win this fight and I'll be right back up there with guys like Darren Till, and hopefully I'll get bigger fights and keep moving up," Matthews said.

"I know it's a must-win fight, but it's not adding to the pressure at all."