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Veteran Jim Miller accomplished a lot in his 15-year UFC career alone. The 39-year-old fighter holds a number of records, including the most number of wins and most number of fights in the UFC.
On Saturday, “A-Train” set another career record with a 23-second knockout win over newcomer Jesse Butler, marking the fastest finish in his 18-year professional run. But as he told Michael Bisping in his Octagon interview, there is one more thing he aspires to accomplish, and it’s not an undisputed title.
Jim Miller names one more accomplishment he wants in the UFC
A UFC fixture since the late 2000s, Miller has fought the who’s who, from former champions to current Hall of Famers. And at this stage in his career, he says he wants to pull off one more thing.
“I need to kimura somebody. That was my gym move, that was my giant killer in the gym for years. And I’ve never hit it inside the Octagon.”
Known for his sharp finishing skills on the ground, 19 out of Miller’s 36 UFC wins ended via submission. Guillotines are his usual fight-enders, having beaten the likes of Yancy Medeiros, Clay Guida, and Donald Cerrone with the said move.
UFC fans may still see a lot of Jim Miller
Miller is one of the fighters from the ‘OG’ period who has so far proven that he can still hang with the current crop of fighters. Retirement, however, still isn’t in sight for him, despite the physical manifestations of aging.
“Training camps are hard, but life is hard, too, at this point,’ he told the media during his post-fight scrum. “I think I might’ve outdone Daniel Cormier, he hurt himself sneezing. I’m like seven weeks out from my last fight, and I bend over to pick up a piece of a wrapper, a corner of a wrapper on the floor in the kitchen.
“Bang! I tear apart my patella tendon. Audible, had to, like walk it off. Swearing. My wife’s like, ‘What the heck happened to you?’
“Bending over to pick up a piece of garbage on the floor. It doesn’t have to be a camp. It doesn’t have to be a fight. I could hurt myself doing anything. I can hurt myself in the garden, for crying out loud, bending over.
Likewise, Miller isn’t planning to change up his approach.
“I’m not gonna put myself into a bubble and try to protect myself. Because there are things that are a little beat up on this old body. We’re gonna fight it, we’re gonna fight like we do, and we’re gonna keep going. We’ll see. We’ll see where everything goes.”
Jim Miller’s UFC run
After snapping a two-fight skid in in 2020 and 2021, Miller got himself back on the winning track with three straight victories. After a minor setback against Alexander Hernandez in February, Miller erased the stigma of that loss with his performance against Butler, which he won a $50K bonus for.
With plans to be part of UFC 300 in 2024, he is willing to take on whoever is in front of him, age notwithstanding.
“These young guys that I know nothing about and they’ve got nothing to lose, they scare me, man,” he told Bisping. “It’s a dangerous fight. I love fighting the guys that have been around for a long time.
“At this point in my career, I want to have good fights. I want to fight the guys that I’m fans of and stuff like that. I’m happy to go up to 170 and fight guys. Let’s do it.”
Miller’s current record stands at 36-17 (with 1 NC).
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