Jim Miller gets home fight vs. Dan Hooker at UFC Fight Night 128 in Atlantic City

It probably should come as little surprise that one of the best fighters ever to come out of New Jersey will be fighting when the UFC returns there.

Jim Miller (28-11 MMA, 17-10 UFC) has been booked for a lightweight fight against Dan Hooker (15-7 MMA, 5-3 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 128. Promotion officials announced the fight today, while also making official the headliner between Kevin Lee and Edson Barboza, following an initial report from the Press of Atlantic City.

UFC Fight Night 128 will take place April 21 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. The main card will air on FS1 following prelims on FS2 and UFC Fight Pass.

Miller needs to get back on track in a big way. After a three-fight winning streak in 2016 against Takanori Gomi, Joe Lauzon and Thiago Alves, he has dropped three straight. His 2017 was an 0-3 year with decision losses to Dustin Poirier, Anthony Pettis and Francisco Trinaldo.

Miller has not won in his home state of New Jersey since a TKO of Kamal Shalorus at UFC 128 in March 2011. Since then, he has lost to Nate Diaz there, lost to Pat Healy (though it was flipped to a no-contest when Healy failed a drug test), and lost consecutive “Garden State” fights to Donald Cerrone and Beneil Dariush. He fought the first dozen fights of his career in his home state, though, and overall is 13-4 there – though he’s 2-3 there in the UFC.

Hooker has won back-to-back fights and three of his past four. So far, all five of his wins in the UFC have been by stoppage. After a loss to Jason Knight in November 2016 in Australia, the New Zealander has a knockout win over Ross Pearson this past June in front of his home fans and a submissino of Marc Diakiese at UFC 219 in December.

With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night 128 card includes:

• Edson Barboza vs. Kevin Lee
• Aspen Ladd vs. Leslie Smith
• Merab Dvalishvili vs. Augusto Mendes
• Magomed Bibulatov vs. Ulka Sasaki
• David Branch vs. Thiago “Marreta” Santos
• Corey Anderson vs. Patrick Cummins
• Siyar Bahadurzada vs. Luan Chagas
• Brett Johns vs. Aljamain Sterling
• Dan Hooker vs. Jim Miller

For more on UFC Fight Night 128, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.