MMA’s Iron Man aims to continue roll
SPARTA, N.J. – Five or six years ago, Jim Miller was joking with his longtime strength and conditioning coach, Martin Rooney, about fighting at UFC 300.
Rooney couldn’t help but do the math. Miller would be 40 years old and likely have more than 30 UFC fights on his resume by that point.
The laugh turned into a goal in midDecember, when UFC officially announced the date and location of the milestone event.
Miller, a 40-year-old father of four who grew up in New Jersey, was formally added to the card in mid-January, a few days after a third-round submission of Gabriel Benitez. He will fight Bobby Green in a lightweight early prelim to UFC 300 on Saturday in Las Vegas.
He will be the only fighter to compete at UFC 100, UFC 200 and UFC 300.
“I’ll be the old man and still be finishing my fights. That’s OK with me,” Miller said in an exclusive interview with the USA TODAY Network New Jersey.
“I’m going to continue to fight the way I’ve always fought. I want to go out and end the career the way I started the career: to fight aggressively and leave it all in the octagon.”
Miller made his UFC debut in October 2008 at UFC 89, submitting David Baron with a rear naked choke.
His style hasn’t changed much over the years.
He’s an aggressive fighter, always looking for a quick finish.
Relying on power rather than endurance is part of the secret of Miller’s longevity in UFC, according to Rooney. Miller has won five of his last six bouts, including a 23-second knockout of Jesse Butler in June.
Miller holds the UFC records for fights (43) and wins (26), and has spent the most time in the octagon of any lightweight (6 hours, 32 minutes, 47 seconds). He has 15 first-round finishes, 19 wins by submission and seven by knockout.
“Father Time is undefeated, but the way to keep him at bay is to do what Jim is doing,” said Rooney, who trained Miller four days a week even before he signed with UFC in 2008.
“He’s in this zone where it’s not time to be nervous or uptight, or ‘I have to do this.’ He’s doing it for him, to put a stamp on a career few will ever match. Maybe nobody matches it.”
Finding balance
Miller has always built his career around family. Jim and his older brother Dan were high school wrestlers, then came up through mixed martial arts together. At the same time, they were working construction with their father.
Jim cited his dad as a role model. “A mountain of a man” at 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, Mike Miller would “do physical, athletic things” on a job site and then come home and cook meals for the family. Jim recalled his father “covered in sap from lumber and chainsaw gas and his own blood” holding doors open for strangers and never forgetting to say “thank you.”