UFC 168’s Jim Miller ready to remain contender – thanks to new training mentality

After nearly a decade in the fight game, Jim Miller has learned a thing of two.

Next week, Miller (22-4 MMA, 11-3 UFC) is hoping some of that pays off against Fabricio Camoes (14-7-1 MMA, 1-2-1 UFC) at UFC 168. The way he’s feeling right now, he’s ready for that to be the case.

Miller and Camoes fight on the main card of UFC 168, which takes place Dec. 28 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It will be Miller’s first fight since a submission loss to Pat Healy in April – a loss that was overturned to a no-contest when Healy tested positive for marijuana. Still, he took home a “Fight of the Night” bonus for his efforts.

But after eight months, Miller, who turned 30 in August, believes a little time off was just what the doctor ordered.

“It did me some good to heal up,” he told MMAjunkie Radio. “I’ve put a few miles on my body and was a little banged up for the last couple fights. So it was good to do some physical therapy and stuff like that. I don’t like spending time away and not be able to train and be in the gym and fight. But I used the time well, I guess.”

Miller is ranked No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings. It’s definitely a few clicks down the ladder from where he’d have been three years ago, when he was in the midst of a seven-fight winning streak in the UFC.

He had that streak derailed by Benson Henderson, who ultimately would go on to win the UFC’s lightweight title. But since that loss, it’s been up and down for Miller. He bounced back with a “Submission of the Night” win over Melvin Guillard in a headlining role at UFC on FX 1. But then he was stopped by Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 5 – and Diaz went on to earn a crack at the title.

The bounce-back from Diaz was a “Fight of the Night” win over Joe Lauzon that was many observers’ “Fight of the Year.” Then came Healy. But with that fight technically wiped from the record, Miller finds himself in an important spot at UFC 168 – with a chance to put together two wins in a row and three of four.

The way the UFC’s lightweight division seems to be ever-fluctuating, that could keep him right in the hunt – again.

“I’ve done the work to put myself in the Top 10 in this division, and it’s going to take a bit to get me out of there,” he said. “I’m still here, and as long as my body cooperates, I’ll prove that I belong and prove I can beat these guys.”

And now, at the start of his 30s, that means doing things a little differently than when he was younger.

“I’m feeling better than I’ve felt in more than a year, and I’m ready to mix it up,” he said. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I used to train like a 24-year-old and go in there and push hard and go basically as hard as you can go. But I’ve learned a lot of lessons and from the mistakes I’ve made in training. Now I focus on technique.”

Whether or not those changes in training will have the New Jersey native still rolling along as a contender well into his 30s remains to be seen.

Miller won’t rule anything out, but he’d love to one day be the standard-bearer for MMA longevity – now that he has hit on a new way to get ready for fights like the one against Camoes.

“The fights do wear on you,” he said. “I’ve got 15 fights in the UFC, and there aren’t a lot of guys who have more than 20. I’d love to be the exception and fight till I have 30 fights in the UFC, but there’s that realistic part of the brain that knows I have had a lot of tough fights and fought some really tough competition. It takes something out of you.”

For more on UFC 168, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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