Mike Jackson plans on doing some serious damage to UFC legend Pat Miletich when the pair face off under the Caged Aggression banner later this year.
Jackson and Miletich participated in a press conference on Thursday promoting their grudge match on Oct. 14, despite Miletich being booked on a drunk driving charge earlier in the day.
The booking of Miletich, 55, and Jackson, 38, came as something of a surprise, given one if a former UFC welterweight champion and the other posted a 1-2, 1NC in that same promotion and was best known as CM Punk’s second opponent. But it stems from a feud that sparked up online, with Jackson accusing Miletich of being a white nationalist because he attended the January 6 demonstration following Donald Trump being voted out of office (Miletich, it should be noted, did not participate in the violence that eventually erupted).
Miletich in turn took issue with Jackson being among those who arguably cost him a commentary spot with LFA, not to mention the part-time fighter’s tendency to refer to whites as “snow roaches.”
At Thursday’s presser, Jackson pointed out that Punk had called him a bum in advance of their bout. “CM Punk, Phil Brooks, he can’t fight,” said Jackson, who added that in the moment, he had reservations about hurting Punk. “Because he said what he said, I had to beat him up. Not even trying, I sent that man to the emergency room. It wasn’t even sparring. I was really doing it for sh*ts and giggles, I was f*cking around. And I sent CM Punk to the emergency room.”
“He [Miletich] knows this for a fact, because he and I were in the back and right behind us, CM Punk was throwing up because he was so concussed.”
“So if I sent CM Punk to the emergency room not even trying, what do you think I’m going to do to you with every intention of this being a real fight?” Jackson questioned the UFC legend. “I know, this fight, whatever age you are, you have these abilities and skills. I know you’re coming to do harm. I get that. You can fight. I’m not putting you in the category of someone who can’t fight. I’m not going to have this compassion for you.”
Pat Miletich himself was far more reserved on Thursday. Admittedly, that wasn’t always the case — the former friends exchanged heated text messages in the past. “Now it’s business. My emotions for this are gone. Now it’s business, so I don’t need to scream and yell. Trust me, you pissed me off. You pissed me off,” Miletich told Jackson when “The Truth” complained he wasn’t fired up enough. “You cost me a lot.”
“I’m here to bury Pat Miletich and his legacy,” Jackson later exclaimed. “You are a relic of the past, this is not 1998 or whatever year you became a dominant world champion. You are a relic and I am not only going to bury you, I’m going to bury the Miletich fighting system.”
