Tag: Jim Miller

Paul Felder: The fight itch is strong, thanks to UFC 300 and Jim Miller

The exact scenario Paul Felder imagined for a return to fighting is playing out as he sees UFC 300 vs. Jim Miller a real possibility.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Paul Felder[/autotag] gave an inch to the idea of another UFC fight – and the universe is taking a mile.

When Felder (17-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) reentered the promotion’s anti-doping test pool, [autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag] (37-17 MMA, 26-16 UFC) was on his mind. After Miller’s submission win and post-fight callout Saturday at UFC Fight Night 234, Felder has all but committed to fighting once more, at UFC 300.

“When I saw ‘Korean Zombie’ (Chan Sung Jung) have that walkout and I got inspired to potentially get back into the pool and do all this sort of stuff, anybody who knows me or talked to me, you knew Jim was the name,” Felder told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a news conference Saturday. “I was like, ‘If I’m going to do it, I want it to be against a guy like Jim, somebody around my age, who’s been in the game for a long time.’ I’m not trying to come back and make a run for the belt or anything like that.”

Felder did not utter the words “I’m coming back” when he spoke Saturday at the UFC Apex, but his smile and tone couldn’t hide his attraction to the idea of “one more.”

Although he hasn’t fought since November 2020, Felder said he’s in the best shape of his life while he partakes in triathlon training. At this point, the decision really comes down to how he feels in the MMA gym in the coming days.

“When we talked to Jim in the fighter meetings, obviously, the people around me are kind of egging it on and pushing me,” Felder said. “I was like, ‘If you call me out, Jim, it’s something I’d be interested in doing.’ He’s like, ‘If you get me a job sitting next to you on the desk, we’ll make it a deal.’ I think they’ll be calling him for at least an audition coming up soon. When he said that, it’s like, f*ck, now he’s setting me up with all the things I said, ‘If he does this, if this happens, then I’d be interested in doing it.’ I’ve just got to get back in the gym and see how things feel.”

[lawrence-related id=2708581,2709034]

If he’s going to do it, Felder wants to make sure he’s all in. But as a fighter who yearns for a proper retirement sendoff, Felder is hard pressed to visualize a better final fight scenario than a bout vs. Miller at UFC 300.

“That’s why it’s so tough and so tempting and I’m leaning toward wanting to do it,” Felder said. “Because it’s Jim – as he wants to be called at UFC 300, ‘Jim F*cking Miller.’ He’s awesome. He fights awesome – especially I get to see that fight right in front of my eyes. It’s a leg kick battle. It’s a standup battle, primarily. Obviously, he finished (Benitez) on the ground, as Jim can do. But if it’s going to be a fight like that, I think the fans are going to eat it up – because I’m not shooting any takedowns in there, especially against Jim. I’m not putting my neck out on the line like that. It would definitely be a fun fight. It would probably be the first fight of the freaking night, to be honest with you, the way these cards stack up.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

Matt Brown or Paul Felder? Jim Miller weighs in on UFC 300 opponent options

Jim Miller has eyed UFC 300 since UFC 200… and now it’s time to determine who his dance partner will be.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag] and UFC 300 have been associated in hundreds of headlines in recent years and now it’s finally time for them to come together.

Prior to UFC Fight Night 234 on Saturday, Miller (37-17 MMA, 26-16 UFC) already had been promised a spot on the promotion’s upcoming event April 13. Against Gabriel Benitez (23-12 MMA, 7-7 UFC), however, Miller cranked the momentum and anticipation up another notch when he won by third-round submission.

The victory was Miller’s 26th in the promotion, which separated him even further than the rest of the pack on the UFC’s all-time wins leaderboard. Miller, who sits at No. 1, now has three more victories than Andrei Arlovski and Donald Cerrone, who sit at No. 2 with 23 victories each.

With the “when” and the “where” for his next fight already known, the attention turns to the question of “who.”

Immediately after his win, Miller jokingly called out Brock Lesnar – but two other names were mentioned in a more serious breath: Paul Felder and Matt Brown. Backstage after the win, Miller gave his thoughts on each matchup to MMA Junkie and other reporters at a news conference.

“Paul and I almost fought in 2015,” Miller said. “I think that fight would be brutal. I think that is a brutal fight, me and him, locked in a cage for 15 minutes. I also think that that Matt Brown fight is amazing, as well. I think it’s awesome, because one, I don’t have to cut weight – and two, he’s the guy with most finishes at welterweight. I’m the guy with the most finishes at lightweight. That’s a fight for (UFC) 300. Let’s put on a show. Let’s go out. Let’s entertain.

“I’m willing to move up in weight for that type of event. It’s not like I’m trying to get my rankings up or anything like that. Particularly at (UFC) 300, I’d hop in at any moment if Sean (Shelby) called me for those type of fights. Sean, if you’re watching, yeah, I want to put on an epic show with two badass dudes who have been around for a bit. I think Matt might be that guy.”

Felder (17-6 MMA, 9-6 UFC) has not competed since November 2020 and had previously indicated he was retired. Felder recently reentered the promotion’s anti-doping test pool and has teased a return.

After UFC Fight Night 234, Felder spoke to reporters. While he would not definitively commit, Felder indicated the fight vs. Miller at UFC 300 would likely to bring him officially out of retirement.

Brown (24-19 MMA, 17-13 UFC) has also expressed interest in the matchup on X (formerly known as Twitter). Brown, 43, is 2-1 in his most recent three outings.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

UFC Fight Night 234 post-event facts: Jim Miller adds more records to epic resume

Check out all the facts from UFC Fight Night 234, which saw Jim Miller grow his all-time wins record and add more history to his resume.

The UFC returned from its holiday hiatus on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, and although it wasn’t the most stacked lineup, UFC Fight Night 234 delivered seven stoppage results out of 11 bouts.

In the main event, Magomed Ankalaev (19-1-1 MMA, 10-1-1 UFC) produced definitive closure on his rivalry with Johnny Walker (21-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC), scoring a second-round knockout in their light heavyweight rematch to potentially set himself up for a championship opportunity.

For more on the numbers behind the headliner, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from UFC Fight Night 234.

UFC Fight Night 234 Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay: Jim Miller, Andrei Arlovski get max non-title payouts

UFC Fight Night 234 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.

LAS VEGAS – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 234 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $159,500.

The program, a comprehensive plan that includes outfitting requirements, media obligations and other items under the fighter code of conduct, replaces the previous payments made under the UFC Athlete Outfitting Policy.

UFC Fight Night 234 took place at the UFC Apex. The entire card streamed on ESPN+.

The full UFC Fight Night 234 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:

* * * *

[autotag]Magomed Ankalaev[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Johnny Walker[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag]: $21,000
def. [autotag]Gabriel Benitez[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Mario Bautista[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Ricky Simon[/autotag]: $11,000

[autotag]Brunno Ferreira[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Phil Hawes[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Waldo Cortes-Acosta[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Andrei Arlovski[/autotag]: $21,000

[autotag]Preston Parsons[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Matthew Semelsberger[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Marcus McGhee[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Gaston Bolanos[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Farid Basharat[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Taylor Lapilus[/autotag]: $6,000

[autotag]Jean Silva[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Westin Wilson[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Nikolas Motta[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Tom Nolan[/autotag]: $4,000

[autotag]Joshua Van[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Felipe Bunes[/autotag]: $4,000

Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program’s payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Venum’s multi-year sponsorship with the UFC, fighters are paid based on their total number of UFC bouts, as well as Zuffa-era WEC fights (January 2007 and later) and Zuffa-era Strikeforce bouts (April 2341 and later). Fighters with 1-3 bouts receive $4,000 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,500; 6-10 bouts get $6,000; 11-15 bouts earn $11,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $16,000; and 21 bouts and more get $21,000. Additionally, champions earn $42,000 while title challengers get $32,000.

In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-30 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.

Full 2024 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:

  • “UFC Fight Night 234: Ankalaev vs. Walker 2” – $159,500

Year-to-date total: $159,500
2023 total: $8,188,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $22,866,500

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

UFC Fight Night 234 results: Jim Miller taps Gabriel Benitez, calls out Paul Felder for UFC 300

Jim Miller picked up his 13th UFC submission by tapping Gabriel Benitez, and then called out Paul Felder for a fight at UFC 300.

With a potential slot on UFC 300 hanging in the balance, [autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag] needed a solid performance at UFC Fight Night 234, and preferably one that left him relatively unscathed.

Miller (37-17 MMA, 26-16 UFC) found himself in an intense battle with fellow lightweight Gabriel Benitez through nearly two and a half rounds. However, Miller found a way to end the co-main bout at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas by submission, tapping Benitez (23-12 MMA, 7-7 UFC) with a face crank at 3:25 of Round 3.

Miller was on the attack early with crisp combinations and digging leg kicks. Seemingly every strike Benitez landed prompted Miller to return fire even harder. A pair of brief clinch battles were won by Miller, connecting with nice knees to the body.

Benitez looked to build momentum quickly in Round 2, but Miller answered immediately, making for intense exchanges. Switching things up, Miller completed a double leg to take the fight to the ground. Hard short elbows from Miller scored, but Benitez kept him honest with a slick armbar attempt. Miller escaped, scrambled, and controlled the back until the horn.

Both fighters sported bruises and swelling to begin the final frame. Heavy punches and kicks were traded for the first half of the round. Miller once again scored a clean takedown, and found his way to Benitez’s back. This time, Miller got his arm fully under the neck, and forced the tap for his 12th UFC submission win.

“I’ve got three months to heal up and stay in shape and stay ready,” Miller said during his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping. “Now it’s just find an opponent at this point. There’s a couple of names that have been thrown out that intrigued me a bit, one sitting at the desk, Paul Felder. I think that would be a fun fight.”

Felder hung up his gloves in 2020 and has since transitioned to the commentary desk, but has recently teased a potential return to action.

With the win, Miller makes it two in a row following a first-round stoppage of Jesse Butler in June. Now the 40-year-old turns his attention to preparing for the promotion’s upcoming milestone event, UFC 300. UFC CEO Dana White previously stated Miller would be placed on the card to be the only fighter to compete on all three century mark cards.

Benitez falls to .500 in his UFC career. He entered on the heels of a first-round finish of Charlie Ontiveros in August 2022, which ended a two-fight skid.

[lawrence-related id=2708567,2708727,2708696]

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 234 results include:

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

UFC Fight Night 234 video: Hear from each winner, guest fighters backstage

Check out what the UFC Fight Night 234 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event.

LAS VEGAS – UFC Fight Night 234 took place Saturday with 11 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

You can hear from all the UFC Fight Night 234 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

UFC Fight Night 234’s Jim Miller agrees with Anthony Smith: ‘I could kimura Brock Lesnar’

Jim Miller won’t entirely rule out his chances against Brock Lesnar.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag] won’t entirely rule out his chances against [autotag]Brock Lesnar[/autotag].

Anthony Smith turned heads when he said a fight between Miller and former UFC heavyweight champion Lesnar would be 50-50, and that he’d definitely pick Miller on the street.

When Miller was asked about Smith’s remarks, the long-tenured UFC veteran laughed, but wasn’t completely dismissive of his chances – even though he knows it very well could go south for him.

“Years ago, Ronda (Rousey) said she thinks she could beat Cain (Velasquez), and that’s a difficult fight, right?, Miller told MMA Junkie and other reporters at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday for UFC Fight Night 234. “But the mentality has to be there. When you start walking to the octagon, it is the loneliest place on the planet. 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 sh*t, but I’m going to walk to that octagon, hopefully, knowing that my bank account is going to get a big bump.

“Like, ‘Hey, we’re going to take this.’ I’ve trained with plenty of heavyweights through the years. My team now is a little bit smaller than me. 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 going to suck. I don’t want to be underneath him, but I appreciate the push. We’ll take it: 50/50.”

Miller (36-17 MMA, 25-16 UFC) returns to action in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 234 main card against Gabriel Benitez (23-11 MMA, 7-6 UFC) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

[lawrence-related id=2708086,2707100,2706496,2703133]

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

UFC Fight Night 234 pre-event facts: Jim Miller, Andrei Arlovski look to build on all-time wins leads

The best facts about UFC Fight Night 234, which features chances for Jim Miller and Andrei Arlovski to add to their historic resumes.

After a nearly monthlong hiatus, the UFC opens its 2024 schedule on Saturday with UFC Fight Night 234, which takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on ESPN+.

Light heavyweight contenders are set to rematch in the main event of the card. [autotag]Magomed Ankalaev[/autotag] (18-1-1 MMA, 9-1-1 UFC) and [autotag]Johnny Walker[/autotag] (21-7 MMA, 7-4 UFC) will run it back with five rounds scheduled after their originally meeting at UFC 294 in October ended in a no contest due to an illegal knee from Ankalaev that halted the action.

For more on the numbers behind the headliner, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s pre-event facts for UFC Fight Night 234.

* * * *

Video: ‘UFC Fight Night 234: Ankalaev vs. Walker 2’ media day interviews

Before UFC Fight Night 234 on Saturday, watch as the main card athletes speak to reporters at media day.

LAS VEGAS – UFC Fight Night 234, which takes place at the UFC Apex with a card that streams entirely on ESPN+, goes down Saturday.

Before fight night arrives, though, notable athletes from the main card spoke to reporters Wednesday at media day.

If you happen to miss any of the individual sessions on the live stream, check below for the archived videos of each media day.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 234.

Spinning Back Clique replay: Bold predictions for 2024, Sean O’Malley’s lofty goal, Ngannou the boxer, more

On SBC LIVE, our panel talks shop about Francis Ngannou, Sean O’Malley, 2024 predictions and more.

Check out this week’s “Spinning Back Clique,” MMA Junkie’s weekly live show that takes a spin through the biggest topics in mixed martial arts.

This week’s panel of Farah Hannoun, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Danny Segura will join host “Gorgeous” George Garcia live at 12 p.m. ET (9 a.m. PT) to discuss and debate:

  • [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag], rather than return to MMA for his next fight, has signed on to box against Anthony Joshua in March in Saudi Arabia. On the heels of his impressive boxing debut against Tyson Fury, is this Ngannou’s best move? It may be financially, but what will be the implications of staying out of MMA even longer? And does he have a shot against Joshua?
  • Don’t let it be said UFC bantamweight champion [autotag]Sean O’Malley[/autotag] isn’t ambitious. He said he wants to finish this calendar year as not only the biggest name in MMA, not only the biggest in combat sports – but the biggest in all of sports, period. He said it. We’ll lay out a path for him to become a bigger name than someone like Conor McGregor, for starters, and then we’ll see if there’s a way he can surpass Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Neymar, Stephen Curry, Tiger Woods … you get the point. So what do we make of such a lofty goal, particularly one with such a short clock to make it the prediction come true?
  • Middleweight has been one of the UFC’s most interesting divisions over the past few years, without question. That doesn’t seem like it will change any time soon. Champ [autotag]Sean Strickland[/autotag] takes on [autotag]Dricus Du Plessis[/autotag] next week in Toronto, and then we’ll get a little clarity on the title picture after that. But ex-champ [autotag]Israel Adesanya[/autotag] said a return may be sooner than everyone originally thought – and there’s speculation he might want to move to light heavyweight. And then there’s [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag], whose struggles on the scale at welterweight have him at 185 now. But he also said a recent sickness has knocked him back a few stpes. We’ll look at the upcoming options and make some predictions.
  • [autotag]Jim Miller[/autotag] and [autotag]Andrei Arlovski[/autotag] are on the bill Saturday at UFC Fight Night 234 in Las Vegas, the promotion’s first event of the new year. Lightweight Miller and former heavyweight champ Arlovski have their names all over the UFC’s record books. They’re both at the top of the lists for total fights (42 and 40, respectively) and wins (25 and 23). Who’s most likely to extend those records in 2024?
  • Late Sunday, the UFC added two intriguing matchups to its pay-per-view slate in the first quarter of the year. Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira will take on Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 in a No. 1 contenders fight. And in March in Miami, former interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier meets rising standout Benoit Saint-Denis in the co-main event – and it’ll be a five-rounder. So the 155-pound division is about to have a lot going on for titleholder Islam Makhachev to have waiting for him. What do we think of those matchups and how it might affect the lightweight hierarchy when the dust settles?
  • We’ll hit quick and split to close out with some predictions for 2024 about UFC champs, the weight classes most likely to see some champion turnover, who’s ready to break into the next level, who’s ready to call it quits and more.