Jim Miller was looking to get a title shot this weekend with a win over former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson at UFC Live: Hardy vs. Lytle. Miller was on a seven-fight win streak prior to his showdown with Henderson this weekend, and to say he was antsy for a title shot would be an understatement and rightfully so.
Unfortunately for Miller, things didn’t work out as Henderson dominated Miller through all three rounds with superior wrestling, slick submission defense and vicious ground and pound in his unanimous decision victory.
There’s a saying that applies to Miller’s loss tonight, and it goes something like “karma’s a tough one” if you get my drift.
Of course, Miller is a great fighter, and was probably deserving of a title shot without even having to go through Henderson first, but a few select statements about the former WEC lightweights now fighting in the UFC came back to haunt him in the worst way tonight.
Back in Dec. 2010, Miller told MMAfighting.com’s Ariel Helwani in a post-fight interview what he really felt about the WEC guys coming into the UFC.
“I’ve got a really good feeling they will get weeded out pretty quickly” Miller said. “I have confidence in them, but you know there are guys in the WEC that are doing well that couldn’t hack it in the UFC.You know this is the big leagues, this is a bigger different breed of fighter than they have been fighting.”
Getting closer to his fight with Henderson, Miller wanted to clarify his position on the WEC fighters with Helwani for NBC Sports.
“The thing is, I didn’t say that they would get—I said that the top guys had the potential to do well. I didn’t think that Ben or Anthony, you know, at that point they hadn’t fought yet, were ready to come in and fight for the title because they hadn’t earned it yet.” Miller said. “I said the rest of the guys would get weeded out.”
Although Miller went back a little bit on his statements made last December, one certainly gets the feeling that Miller feels the WEC guys didn’t pay their dues.
Henderson himself remembers the statement made by Miller and gave Helwani for NBC Sports his thoughts on Miller’s statements.
“I do remember those comments it was something that stuck in my head and I don’t know how long it has been since, but it is still in the back of my head.” Henderson said.
Henderson also stated that Miller’s opinion didn’t bother him much, but his actions in the Octagon tonight seem to tell a different story. His performance looked like the performance of a man who wanted to prove all the naysayers wrong and he did just that.
Both Miller and Henderson were respectful of each other leading up to the fight and after the fight, but during the fight, both guys were throwing strikes with bad intentions behind them.
Henderson did thoroughly dominate Miller over all three rounds, but that is not to say that Miller never had his chances. He dropped Henderson with a left hook early in round three and threatened with submissions from the bottom through out the entire fight, on one occasion going for a leg lock that looked pretty tight.
Unfortunately for Miller, Henderson has proven time and time again that he is going to be a very tough guy to submit.
Miller seems to be a genuine guy, and in the same post-fight interview with Helwani last December stated that he would never be the trash-talking fight hyper like some of the wrestlers in the WWE. The only reason he started talking a bit was because he probably felt that he needed to get the fans’ attention in order to get a title shot because a seven-fight win streak didn’t seem to do the trick.
After all is said and done, Henderson may have gone a long way to changing Miller’s opinion on the WEC lightweights from now on.
What is next for Miller? Maybe a fight with the last WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis or against former WEC lightweight contender Donald Cerrone who also won in spectacular fashion tonight against Charles Oliveira. In any case, hopefully for Miller’s sake it doesn’t take seven more wins before being considered for title contention again.
Leon Horne has been contributing to Bleacher Report MMA for three years, Follow @Leon_Horne
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