Jim Miller will once again tie Donald Cerrone for the most UFC fights at 35 when he battles Roosevelt Roberts this Saturday at UFC on ESPN 11.
For Miller, he is eager to step into the Octagon once again even if it is on short notice. The veteran only found out about the fight just a week or so ago and is glad he’s fighting again so he has a shot at 40 UFC fights.
“It is cool. It’s a cool little feather in the cap but it is not anything super important to me,” Miller said to MMANews. “At this point, there is a handful of us that will get over 30 and a few of us may push 40 or push past 40, who the hell knows. The game is changing and I don’t see guys in the future getting 30 fights in the UFC.
“If all goes well, my plan is to get [another fight] end of August, early September,” he added. “Hell if I had gotten another fight when I wanted to, I’d have another three fights. I’ve had some longer layoffs than I wanted. 40 should be relatively easy.”
Although many thought Miller would be fighting other older veterans, he says Roosevelt Roberts is someone he has had his eye on after the surging contender called him out last April.
Since the callout, Miller has been paying attention to Roberts and knows he’s a tough out. But, he’s confident in his skills to get the job done.
“I have seen him fight a couple of times and he called me out after I beat Jason Gonzalez. I’ve seen him fight and he’s dangerous. He has some submission skills and he’s solid on the feet. You can’t sleep on anybody,” he explained. “His record doesn’t matter. If he was 100-1 it wouldn’t matter on fight night. It’s a fight and we are both going to go in there and fight as hard as we can and I’ll do everything I can to come out on top.”
Entering this fight, Jim Miller is a sizeable underdog. Yet, he isn’t paying any attention to that. He’s confident he’ll pull off the upset win and derail some of the hype Roberts has. He also believes it is a fight he can notch another finishing win on his record.
“I hope I go out and have some fun and that means the finish will come. I’m feeling pretty good and I’m ready to fight,” Miller said. “I do respect his ground game and striking but I feel like I have a pretty good advantage. He’s coming off a good win and a ton of confidence and that makes him dangerous. But, I’m ready for it.”
If Jim Miller does just that, he hopes he can turn around quickly whether it is at 155 or 170 against another legend.
“I don’t know where it puts me, I hope it puts me in a position to fight again. I like the big fights, I like fighting the other guys who have legend status. Fighting Clay [Guida] was awesome and just even the build-up,” Miller said. “Knowing that I was going to share the Octagon was cool. If I can fight these other guys who have been around for a while it’s great. Whether it is at 155 or even 170.”
Ultimately, after UFC on ESPN 11, Miller will be five fights away from reaching 40 UFC fights and has an idea of who he’d want to fight for 40 UFC fights. He says the perfect opponent would be to rematch Cerrone so they can get to 40 UFC fights together and then possibly call it a career.
“I always wanted to fight GSP he was the guy I wanted to fight to see how good he was. Just the way that he dominated guys it really interested me. I’d say currently if Cerrone and I are going to get to 40 UFC fights, we might as well mix it up again for both our 40 fights. That way, if we are both too old to continue, at least we go out with a bang,” Miller concluded.
