Filed under: UFC, MMA Fighting Exclusive, News
Jim Miller isn’t the kind of fighter to make excuses after a fight. That’s why it took some prodding to find out why he didn’t look like himself in his loss to Ben Henderson last August.
Of course, “Bendo” had a lot to do with that, as well. The former WEC lightweight champion has looked more dominant than ever since moving over to the UFC, and a 3-0 run in 2011 earned him a title shot against champion Frankie Edgar in February.
As for Miller, while he didn’t want to take anything away from Henderson, he did admit to MMAFighting.com that he was battling a kidney infection and mononucleosis during the Henderson fight.
“It really hit me a couple hours after the fight,” Miller said. “I woke up in the middle of the night and had this weird pain my lower back. It just wouldn’t go away. It was something I never felt before and really hope to never feel again, to be perfectly honest. I got home, it was [expletive] traveling, bouncing on the plane and stuff like that was not comfortable. It was actually the first time that I lost weight after a fight because I didn’t have an appetite or stuff like that. It was pretty miserable.”
Miller, who meets Melvin Guillard Friday night in the main event of UFC on FX Fight Night, said he beat the infection with antibiotics and “lots of fluids.” The loss was a devastating one for the AMA Fight Club member, who appeared to be one fight away from fighting for the title. It was Miller’s first loss in eight fights, a stretch that dated back to March 2009.
“I had a bad night. I knew something was wrong and I didn’t adapt to the situation. He fought a great fight, and I just wasn’t capable to keep up that night,” Miller said.
“I really didn’t know that I was sick. I knew something was wrong. I was pretty tired in camp and stuff like that, but when I was warming up for the fight, I knew something was off. I was getting winded just doing my warmup round, and then when we were starting to get ready to go out there, I just didn’t feel like I had energy. And then stepping into the Octagon, I usually have tons of energy flowing around, bouncing around, and I just didn’t feel it. I tried to fight like I normally fight, and I wasn’t able to put him away with that style of fighting. I feel like I should have made the correction, fought a little more conservatively, worked for dominant position and then go for the attack and stuff like that instead of throwing everything I had at him.”
So it’s back to the drawing board for the 28-year-old Miller, who sees similarities between himself and his opponent on Friday night. Guillard also appeared to be one step away from contending for the lightweight title before he lost via submission in just 47 seconds to Joe Lauzon in October.
“There are many similarities [between us],” Miller said. “We both have the same goal and we both want to get right back to where we were and this is a great fight to take that next step and get right back up there.
“I personally didn’t want to fight somebody that hasn’t proven themselves in the division, and he certainly has. So this is exactly what I wanted. I wanted that tough fight and that big name fight, not just a tuneup fight. I want that challenge.”