UFC lightweight Cole Miller (16-4) is coming off of a submission win over Dan Lauzon at UFC 108, a victory which earned him a “Submission of the Night” bonus. The American Top Team fighter has stopped fourteen of his past sixteen opponents, including four submission wins in the UFC.
His upcoming opponent, Ross Pearson (11-3), who is 3-0 in the UFC, has two unanimous decision wins in the promotion, which doesn’t sit well with Miller.
Miller and Pearson will meet this Wednesday at the UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares event in Austin, Texas in the opening bout of the Spike TV broadcasted event.
In a recent interview, Miller stated that he feels his opponent Pearson has no “commitment to ending a fight.”
“I think it’s this new method of sportfighting that all these guys are doing,” said the Georgia native. “I’m not doubting that he (Pearson) has striking talent; he has definitely improved since the show (The Ultimate Fighter) and his first fight in the UFC with Andre Winner, which I think plays into my game better. I do better with more technical guys. But the thing is, he’s getting all decisions, and his one stoppage was over Aaron Riley and it was a cut stoppage. He wants to score, then clinch, and score and clinch. I’m sure this guy’s got knockout power – he’s built like a tank – but it just doesn’t seem like he’s really down to put forth that type of commitment to ending a fight. I think this is bad for the sport, it’s bad for the UFC, and I think that this is why you’re gonna start seeing more guys that are athletic, who look like action figures, and that have wrestling backgrounds coming in because they don’t have to beat you. They just gotta score their points, score their takedowns, or score their strikes and stop your takedowns, and ride out that decision. Just wait for that minute and a half left and do what you gotta do to win that round and score with those judges. That’s how I see his striking being. It’s very good, but I just don’t see him putting any passion or emotion into the fight. It might be a sport to some people, but it’s not a sport to me.”
“The thing is, with my go for broke style, I’ll end up being the one who gets knocked out or TKO’ed because I know that these guys aren’t gonna try to fight me,” he continues. “It’s kinda foolish and I admit that, but I kinda go after these guys too hard. I know they’re not going to fight me to finish me. It’s called mixed martial arts, but none of these guys are using martial arts. Martial arts were made to put your opponent away, not to make him last for 15 minutes. The first part of martial arts is for you to defend yourself. The second is for you to eliminate your opponent. These guys aren’t eliminating anybody, and I just don’t get it. So I have to make up for that. I gotta come at these guys and take all these risks, which leaves me open to be countered…”
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” he smiles. “I want there to be an end game. I don’t want there to be a question and things left unanswered. What if I took that chance? What if I took that leap? What if I had still kept fighting? Anytime things start to look bad, I come back and do something good. And sometimes when you fall back down, you’ve got to pick yourself back up.”
Check out the full interview at UFC.com.