Miller Likes Diaz But Doesn’t Mind Fighting Him
Jim Miller scored yet another impressive win Friday, submitting Melvin Guillard with a rear-naked choke in the first round of the UFC on FX main event.
The victory improved Miller’s UFC record to 10-2 and also put him right back in the hunt for a lightweight title shot. Asked on “The Savage Dog Show” if he had any opponents in mind for his next bout, he mentioned Nate Diaz first. UFC President Dana White tweeted this week that the two will collide on May 5 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., at UFC on Fox 3.
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Of course, the 155-pound division is one of the deepest in the UFC. Miller also mentioned that he might match up well with Gray Maynard, Clay Guida or the winner of the UFC 144 bout between Anthony Pettis and Joe Lauzon.
For now, though, he’s going to enjoy his win over Guillard.
“He hits hard,” Miller said. “Actually the first overhand he threw cracked me on the top of the head kind of, and that was probably the hardest I’ve ever been hit in a fight.”
Had the shot knocked Miller out, it would have been his second straight loss. Instead, he got the win by keeping his cool throughout Guillard’s early attack, even after he found himself on the canvas.
“This was a fight where he hit that button and it knocked me down, and really from that point on, it was kind of just autopilot,” Miller said. “You just go into that mode where, ‘All right, now I have to do what I’m good at and what I have to do to win the fight.’ Enough playing around, type of deal. Honestly, after the fight, I was like, ‘How did I even get his back?’ Then I watched the fight and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I took him down. Now I remember.’”
Miller took down Guillard when he tried a flying knee. On the ground, the finish came quickly.
“I have a black belt for a reason,” Miller said. “I was able to pass pretty easily to side. He exploded up into me and I tend to kind of bait guys into that. If somebody’s going to give me their back, I’m going to let them do what they’re doing, allow them to do that and then capitalize, like I did. When he exploded up, it was kind of like, ‘OK, get back to your feet, but I’m going to make you pay for it.’”
It was a nice win for Miller, who was coming off a decisive loss to Ben Henderson in August. Guillard was also coming off a loss, but both fighters had been on winning streaks prior.
“Even though we were thrown off with a loss, both me and Melvin, we still had both put in a lot of work in this division and beaten a lot of tough guys,” Miller said. “You hope that one loss doesn’t drop you way back. And then getting right back to the winning ways, yeah, hopefully it gets me a big fight that can set me up for that number-one contender shot or another tough fight.”
Listen to the full interview (beginning at 1:59:45).
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