Jim Miller Now Faces Promotional Newcomer Jesse Butler at UFC on ESPN 46

🚨🚨BREAKING🚨🚨

Jesse Butler steps in on short notice to take on Jim Miller this Saturday at #UFCVegas74 in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/HcGfwwi8X4

— Marcel Dorff 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (@BigMarcel24) June 1, 2023

The gap in Octagon experience for this short-notice Ultimate Fighting Championship match will be historic.

Earlier in May, Jim Miller (35-17, 1 NC) was slated to face Ludovit Klein at UFC on ESPN 46. A few weeks before the match, Jared Gordon stepped in to replace Klein against Miller. On Thursday, news broke from Fight Bananas that Gordon was forced out of the fight that will be happening on Saturday. The promotion cobbled together another replacement option, per Eurosport NL, and Miller will now be squaring off with newcomer Jesse Butler (12-4) on June 3 at the UFC Apex. The lightweight pairing has been confirmed by Butler on Twitter shortly after its announcement.

Miller is still aiming to rebound from his first loss in a few years, where he came up short to Alexander Hernandez in February on the scorecards. That loss ended a three-fight win streak for the 39-year-old veteran, who had strung together a trio of finishes over Erick Gonzalez, Nikolas Motta and Donald Cerrone in less than nine months. The fighter with more bouts in the UFC than any other is still expected to continue competing until 2024, when UFC 300 hits around May or June of that year. “A-10” currently leads the UFC in fights (41) and wins (24), and the latter tally could be tied by Andrei Arlovski should Miller lose while Arlovski prevails that night.

Typically a featherweight, Louisiana’s Butler will enter the UFC on a five-fight win streak. His last three appearance came under the Fury Fighting Championship banner, where he beat the likes of Dimitre Ivy, Masio Fullen and Anselmo Luis Luna Jr. in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively. The Kron Gracie West Monroe product celebrates a finish rate of 75%, with two-thirds of his pro victories coming via tapout. With Miller’s 41 UFC appearances to Butler’s zero, this will provide for the greatest discrepancy in organizational experience – breaking Miller’s record when he met Nikolas Motta three bouts ago.

UFC on ESPN 46 will go down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on June 3, with a flyweights Kai Kara France and Amir Albazi handling their business in the marquee matchup. The co-headliner will see 145-pound stalwart Alex Caceres duke it out with finisher Daniel Pineda. Additional main card tilts other than Miller-Butler include a flyweight scrap as Tim Elliott fights Victor Altamirano, a women’s flyweight collision when Karine Silva faces Ketlen Souza and a 170-pound stylistic clash as Abubakar Nurmagomedov takes on Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos.