When the WEC merged with the UFC last year, one of the first non-title fights people talked about was Ben Henderson vs. Jim Miller.
Miller was seen as a surefire contender to fight the winner of Frankie Edgar-Gray Maynard, and Ben Henderson had just come off of his too-close-to-call-before-the-Showtime-Kick title bout at WEC 53, in which Anthony Pettis defeated him by unanimous decision.
After Henderson’s unanimous decision win against Mark Bocek at UFC 129 and Miller’s third-round TKO of Kamal Shalorus at UFC 128, it seemed natural that they would collide to determine who would threaten the UFC Lightweight Champion, whomever that may be.
Now the battle is finally happening tomorrow night at UFC on Versus 5, and the question now is, “What does Jim Miller have to do to beat Ben Henderson?”
That’s probably the best possible question to ask, and it’s also possibly the most challenging, because even though Miller is two fights deeper than Henderson and has never tapped out or passed out, Henderson has been locked in some of the tightest submissions ever, and yet he would not go down.
Henderson passed out to an Anaconda Choke once, but to get Henderson to tap out, you might have to have a metal rod in your arm somewhere—or you might have to be the size of “Butterbean” Eric Esch.
To put it another way, Jim Miller must do something similar to what he did with Shalorus, and stand with Henderson if he wants to beat him.
Clearly, Miller is no K-1 level striker, and I don’t think he ever will be a K-1 level striker, but his stand-up is good enough to where he can mix up his punches with some brutal knees and a few checking leg kicks and frustrate Henderson at the least.
Oh, and did we mention that Miller is as aggressive as they come, and will not relent until he has Henderson finished?
If you don’t believe it for a minute, watch Miller on Saturday.
Whether he knocks Henderson out or not, he will hurt Ben Henderson, and it will look like Henderson took a trip to Hell and back…and maybe even back to Hell.
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