NEWARK, N.J. – Jim Miller invoked the name of the legendary Indiana Jones when describing how he feels two decades into his career.
Miller (39-19 MMA, 28-18 UFC) made quick work of Jared Gordon (21-9 MMA, 9-8 UFC) in their lightweight fight on the prelims at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and submitted him with a first-round guillotine choke.
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Miller extended his UFC record for most wins and picked up a Performance of the Night bonus, as well – which no doubt will be appreciated after what Miller described early in fight week as a rough 2025. Last year, he had surgery, and so did his teenage son – for a rare form of cancer, which he beat, and which was a source of inspiration for Miller during his training camp.
Miller’s return on home soil in New Jersey was his first fight in 13 months – the longest layoff of his career. But his response in the fight was an emotional one with his whole family watching cageside. He now has stoppages in his past 11 wins dating back nearly a decade, and eight of those have been submissions.
He has said for a while that he’d like to hit 50 fights in the UFC, which would seem to be the kind of number that would be hard for anyone to get close to again. But he knows at 42, with the bumps and bruises of the past two decades, he’s up against it.
“There’s this pretty famous college professor, Henry Jones Jr. – you might know him as ‘Indiana.’ He said, ‘It’s not the years, it’s the miles,’ right? I’ve got a lot of miles on the body.
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“I want to get to 50. I don’t want anything stupid to happen. That’s why I train with the team that I do. They’re awesome guys. I don’t get all the looks in the room. It’d be nice to have particular body types and styles. But I have a group of guys that I can trust (and) that trust me. We can do what I need to do to prepare. They give me the looks that I need and I can do it in a safe way. I think way too many careers in this sport are cut short by silly injuries and preventable injuries that happen inside the (training) room. So I want to get to 50 and then be able to sail off into the sunset.”
And if one of those last few on his trek to 50 fights in the UFC happened to come against one of the biggest names in MMA history, he wouldn’t complain. Conor McGregor, who hasn’t fought in nearly five years, has teased a return soon.
Miller would take him up on it.
“I think that’d be a fun fight,” Miller said. “I’ll test that new ankle he’s got there, that titanium. I don’t know – I honestly feel bad for him because he hasn’t had the opportunity to fight in so long. Yeah – they know my number.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Indiana Jones mileage issues aside, Jim Miller still wants 50 in UFC
