Issue 074
April 2011
With a six-fight UFC win streak, Jim Miller – the quiet man of the lightweight division – demands respect. But with other fighters jockeying for position, it’s time for him to start making noise
In his spare time, long-standing UFC lightweight contender Jim Miller loves nothing more than resigning to the ‘man cave’ in his basement to watch classic fight videos, finger through his freezer full of freshly hunted deer, and line up his collection of high caliber rifles to decide on which weapon he will use to hunt his next meal. He laughs bashfully at the suggestion he is the pinnacle of hyper-masculinity. “I’m a very primal person. We’re homo sapiens; we’re animals. I try to feed off the parts of me that still are animal – the parts that were out surviving in the wilderness when we had nothing. So whether I’m in the cage or out hunting I try and tap into that and not rely on technology or other people to do it for me. I try to be a man and a role model. I’ve got a daughter and a nephew that I try and lead by example.”
It was at UFC 124 that Miller would do a little hunting inside the Octagon, easily submitting a much hyped-Charles Oliveira by armbar in the first round to go 8-1 in the UFC. With the destruction of such a formidable adversary and a record that some belt holders cannot boast, fans would be forgiven for thinking Miller now stands among the elite in the bid for title contention. Yet after over three years of fighting on the world’s biggest MMA stage and a crucial win that has vaulted him into the media spotlight, the US native can ill afford to remain silent after being overlooked for a shot at the lightweight crown. In his post-fight interview with the Larry King of MMA, Ariel Helwani, Miller blasted the UFC stating: “I feel disrespected. I’ve paid my dues by beating pretty much everyone they’ve put in front of me and the only guys that have beaten me are fighting for the title. I feel I should be considered right below them because I’ve done nothing to prove I shouldn’t be.” Yet the UFC have not even provided Miller with a whisper that he is anywhere near title contention, leaving the relentless grappler pursuing the belt with an unwavering intensity.
Perhaps growing up with two champion athletes instilled a determination into Miller to succeed. Both his older brothers were accomplished wrestlers and Dan Miller now competes in the UFC’s middleweight division. Originally pursuing a degree in engineering at Virginia Tech, Miller found himself lured away from education as a mixed martial arts career beckoned. “During high school I spent too much time cutting weight and not enough time studying,” he says. “I remember my wrestling coach bringing in a video tape of an early UFC and it was awesome. By the time I went to college I wasn’t enjoying my course so I took some time out to decide what I wanted to do with my life. I ended up going in and training at Planet Jiu-Jitsu [in New Jersey, not to be confused with Eddie Bravo’s 10th Planet] and it was too much of a rush. We were doing too well at it, so me and Dan had our first grappling tournament two months after we started and we were stepping into the ring doing MMA after just six months.”
Growing up in Sparta, New Jersey, few could predict that a small-town boy from, by his own admission, “a very middle class family” would quickly rise to the highest stratum of cage-fighting prowess. A long string of successive wins in smaller promotions including the International Fight League finally saw Miller enter the UFC in 2008. The Brazilian black belt and NCAA division wrestler has now dispatched of jiu-jutsu skilled fighters such as Matt Wiman, Mac Danzig and Duane Ludwig, while making the perfect statement against Oliveira as to why he should be at the forefront of lightweight contenders. “He underestimated me. People underestimated me,” says the 27-year-old Miller. “He was a tough kid. He had a good guard and I feel he was technical but he was probably the smallest and weakest guy that I’ve fought in the UFC. People forget that I’m a legitimate black belt in jiu-jitsu and I train with some really tough guys who were world champions.”
While decimating solid opponents, Miller has thus far kept a low profile within the UFC. Some fighters such as Chael Sonnen and Josh Koscheck have risen to prominence with their fight-selling capabilities and audacious smack talk, but Miller still remains reluctant to use such sensational verbiage to raise to the tip of the 155lb division. “I’m not going to use smack talk. MMA has come a long way since I started training yet we still don’t get the credit as world class athletes. There’s a lot of talk now about being entertaining outside the ring as inside it, but it’s competition for us first and foremost. The whole selling fights portion of it, we know it’s all acting, we know it’s lying. Every time somebody talks a lot of trash before the fight they end up going and hugging them after the fight and saying, ‘It was just to sell the fight’, and we know it’s all bullsh*t. I think the fans know enough about the sport now to appreciate fighters as fighters and not television personalities.”
If this is the case, then why has Miller not managed to become more of a notable figure within the UFC? “I still feel there’s a large portion of the fans that still need that. They don’t read the news on the Internet and are only interested in the main event,” says Miller. “I’ve still got a good fan base who enjoy watching fights because of technique and I’m appreciative of it. I’m not going to change anything I do. I’m simply going to train the hardest and fight the hardest.”
At UFC 128 in March, the AMA Fight Club product will certainly have to ‘fight hard’ to overcome unbeaten wrestler Kamal Shalorus in front of a home crowd in New Jersey. “He’s a tough fighter, a great wrestler and he’s got a couple of good wins, but I’m not intimidated by him,” says Miller. “I’ve fought some really tough guys who I’ve had a ton of respect for. I’ll step in there with anybody and he’s just another guy in my way to the title shot.” Although Shalorus may prove a formidable opponent against Miller, he previously called for Aussie up-and-comer George Sotiropoulos who boasts an impressive run of six straight wins in the UFC. While Sotiropoulos is lined up to fight Dennis Siver at UFC 127 in February, Miller still hopes the fight comes to fruition. “George is a very tough fighter. I’ve got a lot of respect for him and I think that if we both win our next fights, it’s pretty much gotta happen. We’ve both got great records and we both deserve to be on the cusp of title contendership, so with another win under our belts we’ve basically left everyone else behind.”
With title aspirations boiling, there still remains a thorn in Miller’s side. A decision loss to Gray Maynard at UFC 96 set his title dream back considerably and proved to be the bane of a UFC run which would else read 9-0 in the UFC if fortunes were reversed. “The way that I approach fighting, I try to give everything I have – that’s my number-one goal. Even if it goes to the judges’ scorecards I want to know that I put my all in it and stood on my own two feet. I want to be exhausted and in pain because I worked my ass off for 15 minutes – so if I lose I still have nothing to be ashamed of. I didn’t feel like that at the end of the Gray Maynard fight. I was disappointed because I could of done more. I think if I got a shot at him now I believe I could beat him. I think I could also beat Edgar as well. I’ve improved significantly. When we step into the ring I’m gonna have new tools and new weapons. I’m going to be a different fighter. I will not only beat them, but I’ll finish them.”
Strong words from a determined athlete. Whether Miller’s fate lies as a gatekeeper to elite contendership, or if he continues to blast through opponents and be granted his title shot, one thing is for certain: Jim Miller will not let the fans forget him, and certainly will not go out without a fight.
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