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After a career spent at light-heavyweight, Bisping will drop down from 205lbs to 185lbs when he takes on Charles McCarthy at UFC 83 in Montreal.

The 28-year-old star was originally working towards a March date for his middleweight debut, although the UFC announced this weekend that the fight will now take place on the undercard of the stellar event in Canada, which features the welterweight championship fight between Matt Serra and Georges St. Pierre.

A 20lb-drop is far from unusual in mixed martial arts, where fighters routinely dry their bodies of water in the week leading up to the fight before rehydrating after the weigh-in, ensuring they step into the Octagon as strong and explosive as possible.

And Bisping, who walks around in-between fights at his natural weight of around 209lbs, is hoping to avoid the need for any drastic, last-minute measures to make the 185lb-limit after revealing to Eurosport.Yahoo! his hatred of "sucking off" weight in the sauna.

"Thankfully, the fight was only put back a month, so it's not that big a deal," Bisping told us. "To be honest, April is a good time for me to fight. It has allowed me to have my first proper Christmas in three years - last year I was fighting on December 30, so I couldn't really enjoy myself too much.

"And with me dropping down to middleweight for the first time, it is good for me that I have the extra month to lose the weight. I'm down to 200lbs at the moment, so I'm doing okay with 12 weeks to go. I aim to get down to about 194 by a couple of weeks before the fight and then dry to dry out the last eight or nine pounds.

"Obviously I want to avoid a last-minute sort of situation where I have to spend too much time in the sauna because that can really weaken you as a fighter.

"I actually hate saunas, I'm someone who prefers cold to heat. I usually can't spend more than a couple of minutes in them. I had to do it once before when I fought in Cage Rage and I hated it. I was having to do star-jumps in a sweat-suit in the sauna; it wasn't pleasant.

"This time I am doing it properly, getting the weight off slowly and using a nutritionist to make sure I keep lots of strength. I'm looking forward to it, to be honest. Dropping down to middleweight is something I should have done a long time ago."

The Clitheroe, Lancashire-based fighter says he is chomping at the bit to get back in the ring again after taking the decision to drop down a weight division following the first loss of his career in a light-heavyweight clash against Rashad Evans at UFC 78 in November.

"By the time the fight against Charles comes around, it will have been five months since I last fought, which is a bit long for me," he added. "I like to stay busy as a fighter, definitely.

"I fought three times last year, so a fight every five months isn't ideal and hopefully it won't be that long before I fight again. It has been especially frustrating for me coming off the loss to Rashad; you always want to get back in the ring and get a win under your belt again.

"But you can only fight when the UFC tell you to, it is ultimately down to them. As a fighter, you just hope that they can fix you up with a good opponent and be ready to fight when they want you to."

McCarthy - known as "Captain Miserable" following a stint on The Ultimate Fighter 4 - has not fought since submitting Gideon Ray at the TUF 4 Finale in November 2006. He trains with the prestigious American Top Team camp in South Florida.

Alex Sharratt / Eurosport