The UFC lightweight division has quickly become one of the most competitive weight classes in the organization. Since the dethroning of long-reigning champion B.J. Penn by Frankie Edgar, every top fighter thinks the belt is within reach. One of those light weight contenders is American Top Team’s Cole Miller. “Magrinho” has put together an impressive run winning four out of his past five bouts with his two most recent showings resulting in “Submission of the Night” earning efforts.
The first of which came at the expense of Dan Lauzon as Miller finished off “The Upgrade” with a combination submission that consisted of a kimura lock from an inverted triangle. Miller took the momentum into his next appearance as the UFC lined him up against hard nosed Brit Ross Pearson at UFC Fight Night in September. Talk swirled that Miller was to be the next step in Pearson’s ascension but Miller would have none of it. In the second round Miller caught Pearson with a straight right that sent the British slugger stumbling backwards. Seeing he now had his opponent in troubled waters Miller swarmed in and after putting Pearson on the canvas, Cole sank in his hooks and ended the fight with a rear naked choke.
In addition to the work Cole Miller has produced inside of the cage he has also made headlines outside of it as well. During a pre-fight interview for his bout with Pearson, Miller was one of the first UFC fighters to take a public stance on the current trend of “safe” fighting as he denounced the tactic as cowardice. Since Miller’s rant many other fighters have joined the debate and even UFC President Dana White has voiced his opinion declaring that fighting in this fashion is putting the sport’s future in jeopardy. The sentiments expressed by White and others have only further solidified Miller’s stance on the matter and with his bout against Matt Wiman less than a month away Miller is eager to show UFC fans an example of how fighting should look. I recently caught up with Cole Miller and in his Bloody Elbow Exclusive interview he shed light on the new face of safe fighting, talked about preparing for Wiman, and answered the challenge issued by Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in his post-fight interview at WEC 53.
“Cerrone is a good fighter but he sucks at life,” Miller stated. “I guess I’ll be ready to give him his ass whooping after I’m done fighting Matt Wiman. I would be more than happy to take a step down in competition to fight Cerrone and I think the UFC would definitely make it happen because it makes sense. It’s a very exciting fight. These WEC fighters that are coming in from the merger need to establish a name and the best way for the guys that are legit to come in and do so is to face UFC fighters who are already established. They can’t just feed them to the wolves so to speak or give them number one contender status just coming in so they are going to have to fight guys who already have names, who are solid fighters and are on the move upwards. I think it definitely makes sense for this to get put together. He wants to fight me. I want to fight him so make it happen.”
The apparent grudge between Miller and Cerrone arose out of Miller defeating “Cowboy’s” long time training partner and best friend Leonard Garcia. Miller bested Garcia by unanimous decision back in 2007 and WEC 53 wasn’t the first time there has been friction between the two fighters.
“I respect Cowboy a lot as a fighter because he does all of the things that I always say people should do,” Miller stated. “He spends all of his time either striking or in the jiu-jitsu area and he’s not trying to stalemate his opponent or just get by so I respect the guy as a fighter for sure. In this sport who have to keep a high enough opinion of yourself and I don’t think that he belongs in there with me and ever since I beat Leonard Garcia, whenever we see one another there is always some spitting off at the mouth and some verbal warfare. It’s happened several times and he likes to tell me that he is going to tap me out and this and that…but if he thinks he can last more than a minute on the floor with me before he is either swept or submitted he has another thing coming.”
Miller continued, “I started thinking about it and there hasn’t been anyone who has been on the floor with me for at least a minute straight where I haven’t either gotten up, swept, took their back, passed or caught them in some sort of submission attempt. I don’t know if they’ve been on the ground with me for 30 seconds without one of those things happening to tell you the truth. I don’t know what Cowboy is thinking. Maybe that’s all talk with him wanting to submit me but that definitely is not happening.”
“I’m going to fight Wiman and then I want to fight Cerrone. Some people out there are just too dumb to realize that they are not any good and I want to show Cerrone that is exactly the case. When you think about it that is probably his biggest strength and at the same time his biggest weakness because he is too dumb to realize his actual skill level. Also, I just want to tell Cowboy thanks for calling me out because that was really motivating for me. After this fight with Wiman I’ll tack up a picture of his face on my mirror so when I get up to start my day it will get me motivated to get into the gym, training hard than ever before and as a result I will be the on a totally different level. I’ll be the best fighter that I’ve ever been when it comes time for me to fight and kill him,” Miller concluded.
The merger of the WEC into the UFC stands to bring more change to a division that has been in flux since Penn lost his title and vacated the weight class. With the arrival of more lightweight fighters and the opportunity for existing 155 lb. competitors to drop down to a lighter weight class, the division as a whole will continue to see change throughout the next year as well.
“I don’t really expect to see too many guys dropping down because there aren’t a ton of small lightweights in the UFC,” Miller suggested. “I think the majority of guys have adjusted their size to be average amongst larger than average 155’ers. I do expect to see some guys drop down to the lighter weight class but I would estimate it will be ten or less that drop from 55 to 45.”
The fighters who have survived the initial round of cuts will have to adjust to what most agree to be a higher level of competition that exists in the UFC lightweight division. While other fighters will be given the time to establish themselves, current champion Anthony Pettis will be ushered to the front of the line. As the topic of discussion remained on the merger Miller expressed confidence in the fighter known as “Showtime”.
I think some guys will struggle but I don’t think Anthony Pettis will,” Miller remarked. “He hasn’t fought a lot of tough competition but he has had tough competition. He just fought Ben Henderson and what UFC fighter currently out there that has a lot of the same attributes as Henderson? A very explosive fighter, scrambles a lot, more of a chain wrestler, shows up in good shape and is a purple belt level in jiu-jitsu…that’s Frankie Edgar. Who else did he fight? He faced another fighter recently who is more of a power house wrestler who drives in, gets that one takedown, decent boxing and a strong college wrestling background. That was Shane Roller but those are also a lot of the strong points of Gray Maynard. So it doesn’t matter if Pettis hasn’t fought a lot of tough competition I think he has fought just the right type of competition for this next step up. Now I definitely think that Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard are steps up from Henderson and Roller and I’m not saying those guys are on a level playing field. I was simply referring to the styles but I can honestly say that Anthony Pettis has fought a lot more guys with styles like Edgar and Maynard than Edgar and Maynard have fought with styles like Anthony Pettis.”
Pettis has quickly made a name for himself as an exciting fighter and a potential bout between Miller and Cerrone promises to be an action packed affair as both men have consistently looked to finish fights throughout their careers. As the discussion moved towards entertaining fans and fighting for the finish I asked Miller to give an update on the status of “safe” fighting in the UFC.
“On a grand scale safe fighting is still going on,” Miller stated. “It’s getting disguised better and better every day and these judges seem to be getting dumber and dumber everyday. They are rewarding guys who fight this way and that is only going to encourage them to keep doing it. It is going to take guys like Miguel Torres and Anthony Pettis and the way they fight to wake people up. A fighter like Carlos Condit and other guys that f—— get after it and spend more time in the areas of the bout where they can finish. The fans will catch on, hell they are already catching on and right now we need to worry about these dumbass judges.”
Miller continued, “When you are not spending enough time in any one area where bouts are finished then you are fighting safe. Those areas are on the feet and on the ground. If fighters are constantly taking their opponent down after doing a minimal amount of striking, then letting them back up after their opponent starts to defend off their back that doesn’t make you a well rounded fighter…that’s fighting safe. They are just disguising it. I have no doubt they are working hard as they are shooting in for all of these takedowns, throwing these punches, their ground and pound shots and their half-assed attempt to pass the guard…I know that s— wears you out but that’s not actively trying to finish a fight.”
Just as “safe” fighting has been a constant issue that has grabbed its fair share of headlines, another topic that has been impossible to escape is the rash of poor judging that has plagued mixed martial arts. While Miller has only seen four out of twenty-one fights go to the judge’s scorecards he knows it is an issue that drastically needs to be addressed.
“Financially you have to worry about it but I don’t care about money or any of that stuff,” Miller answered when asked about the impact of bad judging. “I just want to get in there and fight so it doesn’t affect me in that regard but I can definitely see where it would matter to a lot to other fighters. The losses in this sport set you back a lot further than the wins can bring you up…that’s just the way it is. It’s unfortunate but that is just the way it goes and I can see where bad judging will detour fighters from taking chances and risks to finish fights.”
While a potential collision with Cerrone lingers in the near future, there is an obstruction standing in Miller’s path in the form of “Handsome” Matt Wiman. Just as Miller is riding the momentum of an impressive run, Wiman has also put together back to back wins including a questionable submission stoppage over Mac Danzig at UFC 115.
“I don’t really like to adjust too much of my game according to my opponent because I feel like they should have to adjust their plan to my fighting style,” Miller answered when asked about preparation for Wiman. “As far as what we have been doing in the gym, my sparring partners in particular have been creating a lot of forward pressure and swinging with big power shots on their feet. Everything is going smoothly though. Training always sucks when you do it over the holidays but I’ve kind of gotten used to it. This is my fourth year in a row fighting in the month of January. I went over to Georgia for Christmas and took my brother with me for some hard sparring. Basically it’s just been training non-stop.”
A win over Wiman at UFC Fight for the Troops 2 will make it hard for Miller to keep Miller out of Top 10 status. While his name has appeared on several rankings systems around the MMA world, Miller knows that it is going to take more work to make critics understand that he is here to stay.
“The Top 10 is where you want to be,” Miller stated. “I’m not so sure that is where I’m at right now but it’s where I definitely want to be. My goal is to be Top 10, 5, 2, 1 because I always want to be going up. My performance against Pearson got a lot of people talking and I think sometimes people just need to be reminded that I don’t suck. I’m only fighting two and a half times a year on average because in the time that I have been in the UFC I’ve had a lot of layoffs. I’ve been fighting in the UFC since 2007 and I’ve only had eight fights, two of which were losses. So I think the time issue plays a factor but my inconsistency in losing two fights I shouldn’t have lost have caused people to criticize me. If you look at the fight with Efrain, it wasn’t like it was a competitive fight until I lost. I just got caught slipping and got hit with a big punch. You have to take those losses and move forward. The only thing you can do is move forward, keep doing your thing and my win over Ross woke some people.”
This past year saw Cole Miller begin to establish the consistency he felt he has lacked throughout his young career. With the interview coming to a close Miller shared what his goal for 2011 and issued a stern warning to the top 145 lb. fighters who are going to be settling into their new home in the UFC.
“I want to have another year like the one I just had,” Miller responded when asked what his goals will be for 2011. “I went undefeated this year and the only thing I would like to change going into the next year would be to get more fights in. It was nobody’s fault, not mine or the UFC, I’ve just been injury prone. I keep getting sidelined with the smallest s— but it ends up keeping me out for like six months. It sucks when that happens for sure.”
Miller continued, “Also I wanted to add that my brother Micah is working very hard right now and would probably have a UFC contract right now had he made weight for his last fight. He’s going to keep doing his thing and working hard. We all know he can make 145 lbs. and he should probably be doing that pretty soon. He wants to take some time off, maybe not fight for three or four months but if the opportunity arises for him to fight at 145 lbs. in the UFC we are going to take it. He is ready for all these top guys who people consider to be contenders at 145 lbs. I think he can beat all of them. People forget he was 20 years old the last time he fought in the WEC. Yeah, he didn’t make weight for his most recent fight but that was one time in twenty-five fights. He is disciplined, works hard and is a big 45’er. Micah is super talented and is at a very high level of striking right now. People think he is just a grappler coming from American Top Team but he has definitely reformed his style and I had to give him a label I would say he is more of a striker than anything else. When he does come to the UFC people better watch out and I’ll leave it at that.”