Jim Miller Wants to Go Fishing with UFC on ESPN 5 Foe Clay Guida

One of the toughest men in the history of the UFC finally burst into the promotion’s illustrious 20-win club, and it was shockingly much easier for Jim Miller than even he expected.

Miller (31-13, 1 NC) engaged in a brief, albeit wild, slugging match with fellow grizzled veteran Clay Guida in the co-feature of UFC on ESPN 5 Saturday afternoon. But just as their highly-anticipated lightweight encounter heated up, it was over. Miller locked in a textbook arm-in guillotine and put “The Carpenter” to sleep.

Guida buzzed Miller with a right hook, but “A10” landed an even harder right of his own and Guida’s legs rubberized. But just as Guida tried to get inside and make it a brawl, the New Jersey native jumped for the guillotine and sunk it in. Moments later, referee Herb Dean tested Guida’s hand a few times and realized he was in dreamland and abruptly separated the warriors, ending the fight in just 58 seconds.

“It’s one of those things where it happened before I knew it was over,” Miller said following his triumph. “He landed a good strike. I knew he was going to close the distance and try to kind of swarm me then, so I bit down on my mouthpiece and hooked my left and I was able to connect as he came in.

“I knew on his shots his neck would be available,” he added. “Fortunately, it was there. My leg was over the shoulder, too, because if his head popped out, I would have had to have tried the triangle. It just feels great to share the cage with him, he’s an awesome dude. Tons of respect for the guy – I told him we have to go fishing now.”

When asked if he expected the fight to unfold that way, Miller was coy. He mentioned that he anticipated certain patterns from Guida, but not to game plan for specific situations because, in a fight, the unexpected will always happen.

“I tend not to expect anything,” he said. “I try to go through every scenario and particularly that one – I’m going to work my way through it. That one started a little rough for me, but everything happened within a matter of seconds. You know you’re going to get hit, you’re going to get hit hard in there and you just have to get through it. It’s a fight.”

Miller’s conquest of one of the toughest hombres to ever step into the Octagon shockingly didn’t land him any post-fight bonuses. Miller has already captured 10 such awards in his UFC career, a “Fight of the Year “honor, the most submissions in UFC lightweight history (nine) and now the fourth-most wins in the promotion’s history with 20.

With all he’s done inside the cage and currently enjoying a two-fight win streak, Miller said he has no official targets for his next bout. A shot at lightweight gold is quite a ways off even if he continues to win, but “A10” admitted that he just wants big fights.

“I’m not calling anybody out,” he said. “I’ve had 33 fights inside of the Octagon and I haven’t called anybody out yet. All of my fights are going to be big, all of my fights are going to have potential, like this one. This one could have been an amazing matchup or it could’ve ended abruptly. Fortunately for me, I got the flip of the coin and it ended abruptly in my favor. Those are the fights that I want.”