LAS VEGAS -- It was almost easy to forget that this 40-year-old man, who leads the UFC in career victories, not only won his fight via third-round submission of Gabriel "Moggly" Benitez in their lightweight bout that served as the co-main event of UFC Vegas 84 on Saturday at Apex. After a bit of a slow start, Miller was brilliant in outworking and defeating Benitez.
Miller forced a tap to a neck crank at 3:25 of the third round on Saturday to score his 26th UFC victory and his fifth win in his last six outings. Most entertaining, though, was what came after the bout.
UFC CEO Dana White last month promised Miller would fight at UFC 300 on April 13 in Las Vegas, because of Miller's long career with the company, his history of exciting fights and the fact that he also fought at UFC 100 and UFC 200. Who Miller would fight at UFC 300 and whether it would be his last one were the most pressing questions during fight week.
Well, if UFC 300 is Miller's last fight -- and he looks like he can go on much longer -- it would only be because he and his wife decided that. He's as sharp now as he's been in a while and has no need to walk away.
As for who he wants to fight at UFC 300, well, that's the story.
First, he pointed at a UFC television commentator. Then he talked about fighting a welterweight. Finally, he said wanted to Kimura ex-UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Let's start with the TV commentator, retired lightweight Paul Felder. Like many athletes, Felder missed the competition and has gotten the itch to fight again. He's an outstanding TV analyst, and he's got a leading role in a movie that is about to go in production. Plus, he's become a serious, and highly successful, triathlete.
He was supposed to fight Miller in 2015, but the fight didn't occur. Felder has had the itch to fight again and re-entered the drug testing pool, and said Miller would be the kind of guy he'd want to fight if he came back.
"If I'm going to do this, it was going to be against a guy like Jim, who is around my age, and has been in the game for a long time," Felder said. "I'm not going to come back to make a run for the belt, or anything like that."
Then, there was welterweight Matt Brown. Miller has fought primarily at lightweight, but he's No. 2 on the UFC's all-time finishers list. No. 3 is Brown, and so Miller thought it would be neat to do that. Brown, too, is a veteran and if Miller fought him, he wouldn't have to cut much weight, always a positive.
Then there was Lesnar. That was started by UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith, who on the "Believe You Me" podcast with Michael Bisping brought the subject up. At media day on Wednesday, Miller joked about it.
It's nothing he ever would have dreamed up, but had fun with it when it was brought up.
"I’ve trained with plenty of heavyweight world champ grapplers and stuff like that and I’ve subbed them out," Miller said on Wednesday. "So I know that if I can isolate something, I could Kimura Brock Lesnar. I know that I could because I can lift enough. I can deadlift over 500 pounds. I can straighten the guy’s arm. He can’t single-arm curl 500 pounds. So it’s about isolating and stuff like that. It’s going to suck. I don’t want to be underneath him, but I appreciate the push."
Before he got to that, though, he had to deal with Benitez. He'd studied him a year ago for a fight before Benitez was injured and had to withdraw. The bout was put together on Saturday and moved up to the co-main event when Manuel Kape missed weight and his bout was canceled.
Miller's face showed the wear and tear, but he took over as the fight went on.
"I knew what the fight was going to be like, and I knew what to expect," Miller said. "Super tough dude. Heavy leg kicks. Good, straight punches. I knew I'd have an advantage on the mat. I've heard he's the hardest leg kicker at AKA [American Kickboxing Academy] and I was like, 'Alright, hold my beer.' "
Miller was pummeling Benitez with hard leg kicks that were clearly having an impact.
He went hard after Benitez and finally wore him down to the point that he took Benitez down and forced the tap with the neck crank.
"My goal in every fight I've ever been in is to be as violent as I can and to come out and get that finish," Miller said."That's the only way I'm happy, if I put somebody away."
He was the center of attention for much of the week, and not only did he win, but he got one of four Performance of the Night bonuses given out, racking up another $50,000 along with Brunno Ferreira, Magomed Ankalaev and Marcus McGhee.
Now, he'll get that shot on the UFC 300 card with a number of intriguing possibilities. Sadly, Lesnar's probably not one of them since it's doubtful the Nevada Athletic Commission would allow a 300-pounder to fight a 150-pounder.
Miller, though, is having the time of his life and he's looking forward to fighting not only at UFC 300 but beyond.
"I'm different now than I was and I think I fight a lot smarter," Miller said. "I think I'm having more fun out there, which makes me more dangerous, honestly, because I used to have such bad tunnel vision that I would miss things. I'm not going to sit here and try to be the fighter I was when I was 26."