Jim Miller has certainly made the case for being the UFC’s “Iron Man.” Miller is about to draw even with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone for the most fights in promotion history. It’s a race they’ve been in a for a while now, and come Saturday, they’ll each have had 35 fights inside the octagon.
So where will it end? For Miller, at least forty. That’s 40 fights inside the UFC octagon. Fifty, meanwhile, he’s not so sure about.
“It’ll be 40. I’m pretty confident with the way that I’m feeling that I’ll get to 40,” he told media outlets at the UFC on ESPN 11 virtual media day on Thursday. “50, I don’t know. We’ll see where it goes. I’m playing it fight by fight.”
Still, it’s hard for Miller not to look ahead to a certain milestone event that’s coming up. Miller, with the UFC since 2008, competed on both the UFC 100 and UFC 200 cards.
“I look ahead and I see UFC 300 in like four years. I don’t know if I can make it that far, but it would be pretty cool to fight on 100, 200, and 300,” he admitted. Still, he added, “I’m not hung up on that idea, I’m not focused on that idea. Where I’m at, another five fights after this, if I get to fight at the pace that I want to, that’s less than three years. I can easily handle that.”
This fight, and this fight week, are a little different of course. The coronavirus pandemic has seen to that. “It’s a weird one. Haven’t been to Vegas and it be this deserted. Haven’t had a training camp with as small a team as I had. It’s definitely odd,” he told Cageside Press.
“I will say though, the atmosphere we have now is still better than fighting in Fayetteville at the Fight for the Troops in my second one,” he continued. That was 2008, a Fight of the Night outing against Matt Wiman. “That one was a little be tough, because we were like, in the barracks. So we’ll get it done, it’s really no issue.”
With a workout room right next to his hotel room, Miller hasn’t minded the quarantine protocol ahead of UFC on ESPN 11. “I’m not usually the type that goes out and about anyway during Fight Week. Just dealing with my weight and doing what I need to do. I’m not the type to go to the movies or the mall or anything like that.”
Weight will be a bit different this time out however. His fight against Roosevelt Roberts will be at a 160lb catchweight. It’s something Roberts requested, concerned about making weight on short notice, and for the second time in recent weeks. Miller was happy to oblige.
On fighting the up-and-comer, Miller explained that “I imagine myself in his position, and I’d be super fired up on cloud nine coming into a fight like that. So I’m expecting a dangerous guy who’s got nothing to lose. He’s got a little momentum behind him, and he’s fighting a guy who’s been around for a while.”
“He’s going to be a dangerous man inside the octagon,” Miller finished.
Watch the full UFC on ESPN 11 media day scrum with Jim Miller above.
