Just one glimpse at the “Mo Show”, also known as a fight featuring Mo Miller, and it becomes immediately apparent that he has the skills to compete at the highest level. His wrestling is technically sound on the entry and punctuated with awkward angled slams – a result of five years of college wrestling and a smooth transition to MMA. The striking has come around as well, not quite the weapon his wrestling is, but worthy of note.
However, it is not just the physical side of his game that has him ready for the Contender Series, which he’ll appear on September 14th. The mental side of his game is also on point. According to Miller himself, that largely has to do with the people he’s surrounded himself with in Ohio.
“They all helped me at one point in my career, or are continuing to help me. When Jessica [Eye] was here, she offered a lot of help to me – I was close to her size, so I would train with her a lot,” Miller pointed out. “Stipe [Miocic] and Leksy [Aleksa Camur], they are a little bigger, so they helped me on the mental side more. They’ve been on a level I’m trying to get at, so they give me a lot of advice on how to be training and what to expect.”
While some of that advice is how to handle different things in the cage, the more important stuff is about how to handle thinking about the cage in general. That piece of advice has stuck with Miller.
“Just continue to be me. You know what I mean? I’ve fought and wrestled on bigger stages, so I know how to perform. Just continue to be me and don’t think too much about it,” he said of the advice of Camur and Miocic. “It’s just another fight – I think that piece of advice keeps me level headed.”
That mentality is even more important for Miller coming into the Contender Series, where he’ll directly be auditioning for, perhaps, his next boss. But as he’s been told by his teammates who have made it to the big show, he already has ‘it’.
“[Dana White] will see my aggression. If he knows fighting, he’ll see what type of fighter I am because all of my fights are pretty entertaining,” he said. “A lot of people like watching me fight, so that’s why I try not to think about the entertainment part. Naturally my fights are entertainment just by how I fight.”
Miller will look to bring that entertainment to Brandon Lewis, a fellow undefeated prospect with a similar 5-0 record. While he respects the career of his opponent, he expects this one is going to be hard for Lewis to figure out.
“He feels like he’s the best, so I feel like we’re in the same position – both undefeated, both got tested at this point in our careers,” Miller said. “But I do think I’ll be the hardest fight he has had.”
You can catch this fight as part of Dana White’s Contender Series: Week 3 on ESPN+ on Tuesday, September 14th.
You can hear the entire audio of this interview at 29:29.
