Jason “Mayhem” MIller returned to the Octagon at the finale for The Ultimate Fighter Season 14 and took on rival coach, Michael “The Count” Bisping.
Many people believed “Mayhem” would bring the fight to the mat and swarm Bisping with a relentless ground assault.
Outside of the opening frame that saw Miller fail to do any damage after getting the takedown, fans were left with a knot in their stomach as Bisping ripped punch after punch through Miller’s mid-section and face.
It was clear to me that Miller was already becoming gassed inside the opening frame. He shied away from crediting his tiredness to an adrenaline dump or lactic acidosis, but something clearly was not right with “Mayhem.”
If you go and find some of his training footage, you would know Miller came into the bout in good condition. I was tired from just watching some of the footage.
The last time we saw Miller in a high-profile fight like this was the bout against Jake Shields. Miller had some success and came within seconds of submitting the grappling ace but eventually fell victim to Shields’ grinding style.
His fate was the same against Bisping as “The Count” unleashed a constant flurry of punches that had Miller’s face swollen and bruised like a bad grape.
After his disastrous performance, where does “Mayhem” go from here?
He wasn’t ranked high on anyone’s rankings, and he hasn’t beaten anyone of note in years.
If it were anyone else, the UFC would be putting them on prelim fights on Facebook. But “Mayhem” is a victim of his own success.
He’s too well-known and liked to be pushed that far down on the card, which means he’s going to be fighting upper-level talent when he shouldn’t be.
His grappling skills are great, but as we saw against Bisping, he has trouble with the wrestling part of being a grappler and his striking still needs a lot of work.
“Mayhem” should be on Facebook or on either of the preliminary bouts to appear on TV, but the UFC knows they have a walking, talking, set of dollars and they can’t let their investment go to waste.
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