Jim Miller continued defying the odds with his latest submission win over Jared Gordon at UFC 328 and he\u2019s not done yet.<\/p>\n
He already owns a multitude of records in the UFC and he\u2019s still going strong at 42 years old. After his 47th fight in the promotion, Miller also inked a new five-fight deal so he can reach his ultimate goal for 50 fights in the UFC \u2014 a record that could potentially stand forever.<\/p>\n
Of course, Miller recognizes that it seems like he\u2019s doing the impossible by not only staying on the UFC roster this long but he\u2019s still winning fights at this stage of his career, which is a feat many top fighters of the past have tried and failed at previously. That said, Miller knows he can\u2019t fight forever, which is why he set that goal for 50 fights and then he\u2019s calling it a career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a day to day thing,\u201d Miller said after UFC 328 on Saturday. \u201cThere\u2019s this thing that I deal with right. There\u2019s this pretty famous college professor, Henry Jones Jr., you might know him as Indiana \u2014 he said it\u2019s not the years, it\u2019s the miles. I\u2019ve got a lot of miles on the body. I want to get to 50. I don\u2019t want anything stupid to happen. That\u2019s why I train with the team that I do. They\u2019re awesome guys. I don\u2019t get all the looks in the room. It\u2019d be nice to have particular body types and styles but I have a group of guys that I can trust, that trust me. We can do what I need to do to prepare and they give me the looks that I need. I can do it in a safe way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think way too many careers in this sport are cut short by silly injuries and preventable injuries that happen inside the room. So I want to get to 50 and then be able to sail off into the sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s never been big on callouts during his career, Miller admits there are still plenty of challenges for him before retirement.<\/p>\n
He previously called Justin Gaethje a dream fight just because Miller knows that would be a slugfest from start to finish. But Miller admits there\u2019s another name out there that would definitely interest him and it would undoubtedly be the biggest fight of his Hall of Fame career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever,\u201d Miller said about who he wants next. \u201cUnfortunately, I think I might have broke my left hand in the four minutes that we were fighting. But I hear there\u2019s an Irishman looking for a fight. I think that would be a fun one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Irishman is obviously Conor McGregor, who has been plotting his comeback with UFC CEO Dana White recently announcing that he expected the former two-division champion to return \u201cthis summer.\u201d Rumors are swirling that McGregor could potentially face Max Holloway as soon as UFC 329 on July 11 but no deal is done yet for that fight.<\/p>\n
If that matchup happens, McGregor\u2019s future may largely be tied to the result because with generational money already in the bank, he already doesn\u2019t need to fight again.<\/p>\n
But with three fights left until he hangs up his gloves, Miller loves the idea of having some interesting matchups along the way and McGregor obviously qualifies. More than anything, Miller just wants to get to 50 fights unscathed so he can walk away with his head held high.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s like OK let\u2019s get to the point where we\u2019re satisfied with fighting and the numbers are kind of one of my things,\u201d Miller said. \u201cSo yeah, I want to get to 50 [fights].\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as that final tour before retirement, Miller plans to celebrate every step of the way and he doesn\u2019t mind that he\u2019s going to face a lot of similar questions about his storied career.<\/p>\n
In fact, Miller says he\u2019s going to embrace every second of it whether that\u2019s interacting with fans, media or the UFC putting the spotlight on him when he finally gets to that 50th fight. After battling back from Lyme disease \u2014 an affliction that nearly ended his career \u2014 Miller is thankful for every moment he still gets to step in the cage and compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for that,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI was so close [to retiring]. When I fought Diego [Sanchez] at [UFC] 196, I was so close to retiring at UFC 200. I was training for that fight at 196 and I was like I need to get through this and I want to get to 200 because it\u2019s like hey you fought on [UFC] 100 and 200 and that\u2019ll be cool. I think going through what I went through made it a lot easier for me to talk about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI already dealt with it. I already had a camp where I couldn\u2019t do anything. I was so broken down that the guys would be sparring and I\u2019d be trotting on the treadmill because if I even thought about doing live [sparring], I was banged up for three days. I\u2019ve already gone through it. I\u2019ve already dealt with those demons and I conquered the ego with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Miller continued defying the odds with his latest submission win over Jared Gordon at UFC 328 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":["post-664333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}