If you’re looking for pre-fight trash talk from Jim Miller, you’ve come to the wrong place and the wrong guy. But just because he won’t babble on about what he’s going to do to Mac Danzig at UFC 100 on July 11th doesn’t mean that he’s not confident about his abilities or his place among the top prospects in the lightweight division. It’s just that where he comes from, all the talk in the world won’t help you when it’s time to fight.
“The nature of this sport and pretty much the nature of wrestling is ‘what’s talking gonna get ya?’” said Miller, 13-2 in MMA and a former wrestler at Sparta High School and Virginia Tech. “You do your talking on the mat. It’s not like basketball or football where you can hoot or holler if somebody beats you at that game and say ‘well, I can still kick your ass.’ In this sport and wrestling, you can’t do that, because I just beat you in a fight.”
It’s impossible not to like that attitude, and it’s made Miller a new favorite among hardcore fight fans. That type of admiration and attention is a new thing for the 25-year old from Whippany, New Jersey, who certainly didn’t get it back when he was tearing up the mats in high school. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the Big Man On Campus like the star quarterback or point guard was though; all he wanted to do – then and now – is compete.
“I think for most of us, competing is what we’ve always done and it’s not really that big of a deal,” said Miller of being the center of attention. “When you grow up a wrestler, I hate to say it, but you kinda grow up an outcast in most places. When I was in high school, all I did was wrestle – so if you’re not on the football team, baseball team, or basketball team, people usually don’t see you compete, and you’re used to not too many people knowing about it. So now when millions of people see you fight, to me, I’d still do it anyway.”
And as cliché as the term is, ‘old school’ certainly applies to Miller, who isn’t looking for the covers of magazines; he’s looking to get a win and keep on moving towards an eventual world championship. It’s a simple philosophy, but one that often gets lost when big money and fame start entering the picture, and one that can lead fighters to take the past of least resistance in order to preserve their marketability. So when Miller fell behind in his last fight against Gray Maynard at UFC 96 in March, he could have gone into a defensive shell and survived the rest of the fight without taking too many lumps. Instead, he kept looking and looking for the one opening he needed to win the fight. It never came, and he lost a three round unanimous decision, but the effort he showed spoke volumes.
“I train hard and I train to be dangerous even when I’m tired,” he explains. “I know all I need is a little opening and I think I can finish anybody in the division. It’s just creating that opportunity and I was trying to get myself going so I could push the pace to where he (Maynard) made a mistake, because he was definitely very comfortable with the way the fight was going. But there’s always a chance in there and there are two ways of looking at it – 15 minutes is a short amount of time and you can go in there and blow out, or 15 minutes is a long time to not make a mistake. I was in there trying to get him to do something wrong.”
The loss was Miller’s first in three UFC bouts, and his first overall since a decision defeat at the hands of current contender and training partner Frankie Edgar in 2006. That’s a long time between losses in this game, but Miller didn’t start thinking he was invincible before running into Maynard.
“In my opinion the UFC 155-pound division is the most competitive in the world,” he said. “If you have an off-night, anybody can beat you. You can’t go into it thinking you’re ever gonna get an easy fight because there’s always somebody who can beat you.”
And that’s precisely the appeal of the sport for Miller.
“I guess I’m a little bit of a masochist (laughs) – I like the pressure,” he said. “It’s another thing from being a wrestler, it’s only you out there. There’s nobody else to rely on, no timeouts, none of that stuff, and I like that pressure that if I don’t compete at my best, I’m gonna lose.”
Now Miller looks to right his ship a week from today against Danzig, who is coming off back-to-back losses at the hands of Clay Guida and Josh Neer. To most observers, Danzig is in a must win situation, with a third loss perhaps sending him out of the organization. Miller feels just as desperate though.
“I’m coming off a loss too, and a lot of guys are cut after two losses in a row,” he said. “Everybody’s saying ‘he’s a caged animal, he’s got his back against the wall.’ Well, so do I, and I think you have to have a do or die attitude. Every fight is the most important of your career. If I lose this fight, until my next fight and until I win again, I’m a loser. Technically right now, I’m a loser.”
Jim Miller doesn’t like that feeling, so predictably, his daily training sessions have taken on an added intensity as he tries to sew up the holes in his game and get back to his winning ways.
“I stepped it up a little bit since the last fight,” he said. “I felt my performance in that fight (against Maynard) wasn’t up to par, particularly my takedowns, which were just lazy. So now if I’m in on somebody’s leg, I’ll run him across the gym in order to take him down. I’m not gonna get lackadaisical in there like I did in the fight and basically just sit there. I’ve picked up and slammed a couple of people in the gym, (laughs) but other than that…”
We get the picture – Miller is more prepared than ever before, and he’s going to be coming out guns blazing on July 11th. He expects the same from Danzig, and given the former Ultimate Fighter winner’s well-rounded attack and experience, this is a fight that has a potential to be a classic. Miller knows this, and he also knows that one mistake can lead to a second straight loss. Strangely enough, he likes walking that tightrope. It keeps things interesting.
“He’s one of the toughest opponents I’ve ever had,” said Miller of Danzig. “He’s dangerous everywhere and probably the most well-rounded fighter that I’ve had the opportunity to fight. He’s also extremely experienced. I saw him fight before I even started training, and it’s one of those things where I can’t wait to fight the guy because I’ve got a ton of respect for him. If I go in there and I don’t have a great night, if I don’t fight up to my potential and the best that I can fight, there’s a chance I’m gonna lose, and I’m excited for that.”
It’s impossible not to like that attitude, and it’s made Miller a new favorite among hardcore fight fans. That type of admiration and attention is a new thing for the 25-year old from Whippany, New Jersey, who certainly didn’t get it back when he was tearing up the mats in high school. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the Big Man On Campus like the star quarterback or point guard was though; all he wanted to do – then and now – is compete.
losses at the hands of Clay Guida and Josh Neer. To most observers, Danzig is in a must win situation, with a third loss perhaps sending him out of the organization. Miller feels just as desperate though.
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