Jim Miller is in the same boat as Anthony Smith when it comes to a recently discussed fantasy clash with … Brock Lesnar.
Is there any better way to start the 2024 Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) calendar than with talk of a Miller vs. Lesnar openweight spectacle? If there is, we’ve yet to hear it.
One-time UFC Light Heavyweight title challenger, Smith, surprised fans yesterday (Tues., Jan. 9, 2024) with his take on a hypothetical fight between the tenured Lightweight veteran, Miller (36-17, 1 no contest), and former UFC Heavyweight champion, Lesnar (5-3, 1 no contest), being a “50/50” match up. Obviously, a fight like this will never happen and it especially would have no chance of happening inside UFC’s Octagon. Despite that, Miller can’t help but agree with “Lionheart.”
“Of course [I agree]. Yeah,” Miller said at UFC Vegas 84 media day with a laugh. “Yeah, as a fighter, right … Years ago, Ronda [Rousey] said she thinks she could beat Cain [Velasquez], and … that’s a difficult fight, right? But the mentality has to be there.
“When you start walking to the Octagon, it is the loneliest place on the planet,” he continued. “I firmly believe in training like you’re an up-and-comer, training like the guy you’re fighting is better than you and they’re doing more than you and doing it better than you are. The moment that it’s fight day and you start — you have to be the most confident person on the planet. Yeah, it would be scary as s—t (laughs), but I’m gonna walk to that Octagon, hopefully, knowing that my bank account is gonna get a big bump. Like, hey, we’re gonna take this.”
While the 46-year-old Lesnar is happily enjoying his mixed martial arts (MMA) retirement with sporadic World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) appearances, Miller, 40, continues to extend his UFC records for fights (42) and wins (25). Miller returns to action against Gabriel Benitez at UFC Vegas 84 this weekend (Sat., Jan. 13, 2024).
With Miller’s very vocal hopes of turning around to compete on UFC 300 in April 2024 after UFC Vegas 84, we could only ever hope that UFC decides to get completely absurd and throw out all the stops to make Miller vs. Lesnar a reality. Let’s get weird.
“I’ve trained with plenty of Heavyweights through the years,” Miller said. “My team now is a little bit smaller than me, but like, I don’t like to bring up — because training is training, and I’m not a fan of keeping score, but I’ve trained with plenty of Heavyweight world champ grapplers and stuff like that and I’ve subbed ‘em out. 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 gonna suck (laughs), I don’t want to be underneath him, but I appreciate the push. We’ll take it. 50/50.”
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 84 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance (also on ESPN+) at 7 p.m. ET.
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