Former The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season one contestant and one-time UFC middleweight title challenger Nate Quarry (8-2) has lived to fight another day.

At UFC 56, then 185-pound champion Rich Franklin knocked “Rock” silly with one of the sickest highlight reel punches in recent Octagon history. Aside from the occasional Internet clip or UFC footage on Spike, we never really heard – or saw – much of Quarry after that devastating night in March 2005.

Until recently.

In June, Quarry underwent “cutting-edge” spinal fusion surgery to repair a shredded disc in his back, which we mentioned briefly back in November right here. (Note: The injury was not a result of the Franklin fight, but rather a slow degeneration over the past few years.)

Despite the tricky procedure, the 34-year-old has officially made a full recovery in exactly six months. Here’s a snip from Quarry’s MySpace page:

Doctor Thalgott held up the x-rays of my spine and I could clearly see that the two vertebrae had healed together. The pain that had kept me immobilized for the past few months is pretty much gone now. Just have some muscles spasms to deal with. No big deal…. Now I need to get back into fighting shape so I’m going to give myself several months to do so. I just can’t rush this, so I’m hoping to be back close to the middle of the year. I know it’s a while to wait but remember my back muscles were literally cut apart and sewn back together. I’ve had a lot of muscle atrophy and I need to come back ready to throw down with no worries. So be patient with me and I’ll do my best to come back a better fighter than I ever was before.

There’s no rush, Nate. No one wants to make that same mistake twice.