A few years ago, after its four-man tourney failed to deliver a recognized lightweight champion, the UFC essentially scrapped the 155-pound weight class.
Over time, though, and mostly due to the wild success of Zuffa and SpikeTV's reality television series "The Ultimate Fighter," the little guys have found a permanent home inside the Octagon. In fact, the lightweight class has grown into arguably the sport's deepest division.
While
B.J. Penn (Pictures),
Takanori Gomi (Pictures) and
Sean Sherk (Pictures) hover at the pinnacle of the class, there certainly is no shortage of premiere talent strewn about the globe. It seems that in this day of MMA, for every one great heavyweight, there are 10 great lightweights.
Cole Miller (Pictures) feels as though he belongs with the best of the best. He's a tad peeved, however, due to the fact that he hasn't caught the eye of critics. He also feels as if he's been stuffed away in some dark corner.
Like they say in Hollywood, all he needs is a break.
"I mean I could bitch about it, but there are a lot of other fighters it's happened to as well," Miller told Sherdog.com. "I guess it's just the route that I have to take in order to pay my dues. Whatever, I'm cool with that. I just want to fight and I'm not going to sit back and bitch and complain about the particulars. I train my ass off and I want people to see me fight, but all the cards I fight on are stacked. If you look at this one, it's mostly lightweights, and they're all badass fights with badass fighters. They already had the main card picked when they offered me the fight, so I can't complain."
Don't confuse Miller's desire to prove his worth with some bratty punk itching for camera time. He trains as hard as any fighter on the circuit and has the tools to become a major contender, but he also believes that he's gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to insiders' opinions and fan support. That mostly comes from the fact that the majority of UFC fans don't know much about Miller aside from his stint on the show.
He's had two memorable battles since the show, though his last encounter was omitted from the live telecast -- a decision that irked Miller.
"It really only takes one fight to get that recognition and respect," he said. "You've got to be on TV where people can actually see it. If they're doing some sort of feature on someone like
Roger Huerta (Pictures) and they show his fight with
Leonard Garcia (Pictures) and right after that fight they showed my fight with
Leonard Garcia (Pictures), I'd get a little bit more respect. But that fight wasn't shown on TV, and it looks like this one won't get shown on TV either unless I make it a quick fight or do something spectacular."
Miller has an opportunity to make a splash Wednesday when he climbs into the Octagon to face
Jeremy Stephens (Pictures), a solid all-around fighter who prefers to slug it out. Since Miller's and Stephens' styles meld well, it should be a fantastic fight and a tussle that Miller doesn't expect will be easy.
"I don't really know him personally, but from what I can tell he really likes to fight," Miller said with a smile. "He's not coming in to hit and not be hit; he's the kind of guy who really likes to be in the fight and likes all aspects of the fight. He'll go to the ground, he'll keep it standing. He's a pretty good striker who's heavy handed, as he's got a lot of knockouts. I think his only real weakness is the ground because his only two losses have come by submission. He's a tough [opponent] with a good record. He's [12-2] and 1-1 in the UFC and coming off a win. I'm pumped, man, to get this thing going. It should be an awesome fight."
If the American Top Team-trained fighter can get past Stephens, especially if it's in spectacular fashion a la his win over
Andy Wang, Miller should find himself jockeying for position with the other serious contenders in the division. And in a year's time, he predicts he'll be primed for a title shot.
"I think I can hang and beat some of these guys right now," Miller said of the elite lightweights. "But I think it's going to take me about one year to get there realistically. I need some air time on TV and I need to keep winning and I think that starting at the beginning of '09, I'd like to be in [contender] status."
Miller, who said he had a fabulous training camp, should hope that one or two of the televised bouts end early in the first round. Then, if he's in as good of shape as he says he is, his fight could just find its way onto the live SpikeTV telecast.
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