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.”

The post Mike Jackson Says He Sent CM Punk to Emerg “Not Even Trying,” Suggests Worse for Pat Miletich appeared first on Cageside Press.

Born in Vancouver, Alessio kicked off his fighting career in 1998, and in 2000 arrived in the UFC — facing Pat Miletich at UFC 26 for the promotion’s welterweight championship in his very first outing. At the age of just 20, a record that still stands today.

Jon Jones was the youngest man to win a UFC title, but Alessio remains the youngest to have fought for one. The memory of that night — 23 years ago to the day — was something Alessio addressed at the UFC 30th Anniversary Q&A in Vancouver on Friday, ahead of the UFC 289 ceremonial weigh-ins.

“Going back that far, that was honestly one of the first fights that I puked before walking out to the octagon. I got so nervous,” Alessio recalled. “I was just a boy, fighting a man. In his home town. I was in Iowa that fight. So as I make the walk, people are leaning over, [saying] ‘you’re gonna die today kid.'”

Alessio wasn’t so sure at the time that they were wrong. “You might be right. I don’t know!” was his thought. “It was amazing. It was crazy.”

Since that night in 2000, in the pre-Zuffa era, the UFC has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar company. Alessio told Cageside Press on Friday that he saw the potential all along. “Yeah absolutely. I think every fighter that helped pioneer this knew what the sport was capable of.”

As for his advice to young fighters today, “just keep dreaming big. You’ve gotta put everything into it. This isn’t a sport that you can go in half-assed. You need to commit everything in your life to this. I was going to school to be an electrical engineer back then. I quit it all just to pursue this, back when it wasn’t even really a sport. And I was able to make a living at it.”

Watch the full UFC 30th Anniversary Q&A at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver above.

The post John Alessio Recalls UFC Title Fight at Age 20: “One of the First Fights I Puked Before Walking Out” appeared first on Cageside Press.