Thus, adversaries tend to be wary of hitting the canvas with him. Which, by the way, is exactly what makes his upcoming UFC 96 bout against Gray Maynard so interesting. You see, Maynard tends to take opponents down with those world class wrestling skills of his and pound the daylights out of them. But will he want to take Miller down considering the submission danger? Will he be playing right into his opponent's hands if he does so?
Lucky for MMAFighting.com's Robert Rousseau, he got the chance to ask Miller just those kinds of questions and more regarding a fight that may just propel the victor into the UFC limelight.
MMAFighting.com: The last time I talked to you, you spoke about how much you and your brother helped each other in training. That was a very impressive win for Dan against a guy with a great wrestling background in Jake Rosholt (he had this past Saturday). He must be pretty pleased.
Jim Miller: Yeah, definitely. Jake is a really tough guy. It had the potential to be a really hard fight for him. He went out there, Jake made a mistake, and (Dan) capitalized on it.
MMAFighting.com: One thing that kind of stuck with me after I saw his fight was that although Gray is probably more evolved to this point as an MMA fighter than Rosholt is, there are some similarities between your upcoming opponent at UFC 96 and him. Does that help you at all with training?
Jim Miller: It definitely does help a little bit. They both have the same strengths. Training for his fight, the guys were in wrestling mode when we were training. So it helped.
MMAFighting.com: How has training been going for you?
Jim Miller: Pretty good. Except flying on the plane I got a little bit of a cold. Dragging me down right now, but other than that I'm pretty good.
MMAFighting.com: For fan purposes, where have you been training and with who?
Jim Miller: Been training at AMA. (We've had) a ton of guys coming in. I've been training with my brother; I've been doing a little training with Chris Liguori, who just fought last weekend too, and Phil Camacho. Frankie Edgar gets up there now. . .
There's been a ton of guys, you know, the talent we've got up there. And then doing strength and conditioning with Martin Rooney.
MMAFighting.com: That's interesting, because didn't you fight Chris Liguori a couple of times if I'm not mistaken?
Jim Miller: I fought Liguori twice and I fought Frankie too.
MMAFighting.com: So I guess a rematch with Frankie is probably not going to happen. Not in the near future, anyway.
Jim Miller: Yeah, I don't think it is. Right now he's worth more as a training partner than he would ever be as a win, if I could beat him.
MMAFighting.com: I know you have a wrestling background, but these days you're pretty much feared for your submissions. Do you feel that Gray will be able to dictate where this fight takes place?
Jim Miller: It all depends upon what his game plan is and what he's trying to do. If he's trying to stand and throw hard punches at me it's going to make it easy for me to take him down. I think either way it's going to be a good fight. I don't know if he'll be able to control me like he's controlled some of the other guys.
MMAFighting.com: I know you're getting ready for a fight in MMA so you're getting ready for wherever it goes, but do you have a feel for where you think Gray's going to want this fight to take place?
Jim Miller: It all depends. I don't know what his game plan is really going to be. He should have more respect for my ground game than he has for most of his recent opponents. So he might want to try to keep it standing. I don't know. We'll see what happens after I punch him and kick him a couple times.
MMAFighting.com: The last time he fought a guy with arguably your level of submissions he got caught by Nate Diaz. It was on the show (TUF) which doesn't show on his record. Does that give you any measure of confidence?
Jim Miller: Yeah, it definitely does. He really hasn't fought anybody in the Octagon besides that that has my level of jiu jitsu. My plan is really to put his sub defense to the test.
MMAFighting.com: If you were able to defeat a guy like Maynard, what do you think that does for your status in the UFC?
Jim Miller: I definitely think it would be a huge win. He is undefeated and he beat Frankie and he beat Clementi. He's beaten some really tough guys. I think a lot of people have him ranked pretty highly in the standings. I think a win over him would definitely make people respect me a little bit.
MMAFighting.com: The last time I talked to you we spoke about how you have a lot of stoppage and submission victories. You've been going at this for a while, and now you're in the UFC. The last time we talked, you were in the IFL. So with all the notoriety and people watching, what do you want fans to think of you as a fighter?
Jim Miller: I just want them to know that when I go out there to fight I'm trying to end the fight. My style of fighting is really just to keep attacking and to let loose. Some people really train their cardio so good and stuff like that. My style is not about the cardio; it's about the pace. Because I always fight to get tired. I mean, the Frankie fight I went out there and I ended up losing to the kid and I was still able to walk out of the ring under my own power?that pissed me off more than anything else. I still had energy left that I could have left in the ring. I vowed to myself to not make that mistake again.
MMAFighting.com: Was that a five or three round fight?
Jim Miller: It was a three round.
MMAFighting.com: Okay. Going back to your brother, when he caught Jake with that guillotine it was kind of an unusual one because he didn't have the kind of leverage that a lot of guys need to get that. Were you surprised that he pulled it off or did you know that he could from that position?
Jim Miller: Nothing Dan does surprises me. I get to train with him everyday. He's pulled off some crazy stuff on me. He moves like a lightweight. He's a big strong guy and he's just as quick as me. He's gonna surprise a lot of middleweights.
MMAFighting.com: Do you have a prediction for your fight?
Jim Miller: I just think it's going to be a tough fight and should be a good one to watch. Because I'm gonna ? make him work.
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