Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s return to the Octagon last night, six years after losing to George St. Pierre, was soured by Britain’s best, Michael “The Count” Bisping.
Miller turned in a solid first round, landing more strikes than Bisping, scoring to the head and body; additionally, Miller took Bisping down and had the British scrapper trapped against the cage taking punishment like vitamins.
Bisping struggled back to his feet and finished the round standing.
Attempting to recover, Miller was taking massive breaths in his corner between rounds; nevertheless, he came out in the second looking winded. As his hands began to sag, Bisping picked up the pace. The Fight Metric analysis shows that in the first round Miller landed 28 strikes to Bisping’s 17; in the second round Bisping completely turned the tables, out striking Miller at a 10:1 ratio, landing 64 strikes to Miller’s six.
Miller’s take down attempts had nothing on them and Bisping defended each with ease. The fight would remain a striking contest for duration.
Referee Steve Mazzagati pulled Bisping off of Miller, who was turtled up on the canvas taking knees, at 3:34 seconds of the third round. What could Miller have done to win the fight? The man himself has already told us.
In his post fight interview with Joe Rogan, Miller apologized saying, “I got tired. I can’t make any excuses.”
Ultimately Miller fell victim to returning to the the biggest stage in sport, in a highly publicized bout after a 10-month layoff and was undone for it.
Mayhem’s first round demonstrates that he had the tools to beat Bisping, but was so amped from his success coming out of the first round that the adrenaline dump took his mojo for the remainder of the fight.
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