(Props: CNN.com)
Well this is a welcome change of pace — a politician who not only understands and supports MMA, but is gutsy enough to step into the cage and try it for himself. The story of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller‘s amateur MMA debut/retirement has been sweeping the Internet since last night. The 36-year-old Democrat and Las Vegas native grew up around Nevada’s combat sports scene, became a fan of the UFC, and began training in MMA a few years ago. The sport became “an absolute passion” for Miller, who spent the last year preparing for his first amateur fight.
That fight went down this past Saturday night at the World Fighting Championships‘ “MMA at the Lake” event in South Lake Tahoe, where the 6’4″ Miller competed in a light-heavyweight match against an opponent named Jamal Williams. As a favor to the Secretary of State, the match was kept a secret by WFC promoter Matt McGovern. And while Miller eventually came away with a second-round TKO victory, the fight didn’t exactly go as planned. As Miller explained to MMAJunkie:
“It was much different than sparring,” Miller admitted. “I froze a little bit. I had a tough time letting my hands go. I didn’t teep at all, which I usually do in sparring. I threw very few kicks. The gameplan was to set up a couple of punches and maybe a leg kick and take him down and try to submit him because he didn’t appear to have much jiu-jitsu. That’s not how the first round worked out at all.
“At the end of the first round, my cornerman came in, and I asked him, ‘Where’s the stool?’ He said, ‘There is no stool.’ I said, ‘You didn’t think this was going to go to the second round?’ He said, ‘I think you just need to relax, breathe and start listening to us because you’re scaring the hell out of us’”…
“In the second round, we exchanged pretty heavily, and I got rocked pretty hard but recovered and finally landed a one-two (combination) and a kick to the body then a right hand that put him down,” Miller said. “I finished with some ground and pound”…
“You always worry about the potential optics of competing in mixed martial arts because people may see it and assume you’re a violent person,” Miller said. “But that’s not why I like the sport at all. It obviously is very physically challenging, but more than anything, when you train, you get beat up both physically and mentally on a regular basis, and you’ve got to have the mental strength and resilience to continue to fight through. Your mind will give you a million reasons to quit, but you have to push through it and fight to overcome it, and that’s why I love the sport”…
“They gave me the microphone after the event and acknowledged me as secretary of state, so I gave a short get-out-and-vote speech and encouraged people to get registered and vote in the upcoming election,” Miller said…
“It was on my bucket list to compete once in a mixed-martial-arts event, but my wife was very anxious cageside,” Miller said. “Now that I’ve tried it once, I’ll be comfortable going back to just training weekly in jiu-jitsu and doing a little bit of light Muay Thai sparring.”
Talk about going out on top. This country needs more badass elected officials like this, and less hatin’-ass walking corpses. Fun facts: Miller was a star basketball player at Bishop Gorman High School — the alma mater of Dana White and Fertitta brothers — and his walkout music on Saturday was “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, a somewhat ironic choice considering that Ross Miller’s father was the former governor of Nevada. (Is it possible that the WFC promoters were just fucking with him?)