If you’ve been following the fight game for a significant amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard the name Jim Miller. The 40-year old made his UFC debut all the way back at UFC 89 in London in 2008. However, while you might be able to conjure the nicknames of fighters that have been around far less time – you may have trouble coming up with his moniker.
It’s “A-10”.
It hadn’t always been that. In fact, the 54-fight veteran only added somewhat recently. While fight names have all kinds of purposes, his has a very simple one.
“I’ve haven’t done a very good job of it, but branding [was the purpose]. It’s probably been said plenty of times about me, but my name is Jim Miller. It’s not catchy,” Miller explained. “It’s kind of one of those things where we were like ‘hey, let’s figure something out.”
But as they were figuring things out, “A-10” wasn’t the first out of the gate. His brother, former UFC fighter Dan Miller, had a nickname that inspired him to perhaps try something from the animal kingdom.
“My brother Dan, we always called him the Beefalo because he’s just big and doesn’t know his own size,” he said. “If he’s the Beefalo, I’m a warthog. I’m short, smelly, hairy, and ugly, but not to be fucked with.”
At the end of the day, Miller wasn’t sure that he was ready to become “The Warthog”. Instead, he decided to take some inspiration from his childhood.
“Do I really want to be a warthog? So I always loved the A-10. Growing up, I had a poster of it on my wall,” Miller said. “They’re pretty badass and I kind of think it’s a good example for me. I’m not the most nimble fighter out there, but I can take a beating.”
After settling on that, he has intended to go forth with the branding efforts. However, there has been one major obstacle to getting that gear out there.
“I don’t have it out yet, but I have all this apparel stuff that I was gonna do,” he said with a laugh. “Training and fighting just gets in the way.”
Perhaps after his UFC Vegas 84 bout he’ll be able to use a little time to get it going. In the meantime, his sights are set on his co-main event slot with Gabriel Benitez this Saturday. The card will air on ESPN+ starting at 4pm EST.
