Jim Miller explains why Nikolas Motta is one of his “weirder opponents”, says he’s still focused on fighting at UFC 300

Jim Miller figured he would’ve been rebooked against Nikolas Motta right away but is glad the fight is happening.

Miller was booked against the UFC newcomer back in September but was forced out of the fight due to a positive COVID test. It was the first time he had to withdraw from a fight in his entire MMA career but after recovering he wanted to fight in October and figured it would be against Motta. However, he ended up taking on Erick Gonzalez.

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“Yeah, I thought it was getting rebooked. It took about a week and a half to two weeks, I got over COVID, it took me about a couple of days,” Miller said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com. “I got back in the gym and thought I could blow this s**t out of my lungs in a few days. So, I told Sean (Shelby) I’d be good mid-October and figured the Motta fight was getting rebooked and then it just fell through. It’s good because I have done a camp for him.”

Given Miller already did a full training camp for Motta he says this new camp has been easier. He also believes this is a good style matchup for him to have success.

“I think I match up well. The body of work I have behind me, I have fought about every style, every body type there is, I’ve seen just about everything,” Miller explained. “It’s a fight and he can be working on things that he hasn’t done in fights. There are plenty of things I’m capable of that I haven’t shown.”

In the fight, Jim Miller says the game plan is the same as all his fights. The veteran who’s two minutes and 59 seconds away from 6 hours in the Octagon, plans to be the aggressor and make Nikolas Motta make a mistake at UFC Vegas 48.

Miller believes he can use his veteran experience to help him overwhelm Motta and eventually get the stoppage.

“I see it going just like every one of my other fights. I’m going to come out as hard as I can for as long as I can. I know he throws big hooks, a high kick and we are expecting that. It’s one of the weirder opponents for me as he is shorter than me, I haven’t fought a lot of guys who are shorter than me,” Miller said. “So, use my length, use my range. It’s a fight, I’m going to go in there and look for the finish from bell to bell as I always do. It doesn’t matter who’s in there with me, the goal is to fight to my strengths and my strength is going hard and making people make mistakes.”

Should Miller get his hand raised on Saturday night, and do so by stoppage, the plan for him to get a name opponent next. His next appearance will be his 40th UFC fight but the ultimate goal for Miller is to compete at UFC 300, as he’s already competed at UFC 100 and 200.

“If I get an impressive finish it gets me the opportunity to fight someone who’s at least knocking on the door of being ranked and getting that bigger fight… If it’s a great win, an impressive win, we will see if I can take a step up and start climbing the ladder again,” Miller concluded. “If not, see how the last month of training camp goes and the next couple of months and see if it is time to take off the hat and hang it up. I wanted to make it to 40 and I know that will happen at this point today I’m still looking at UFC 300 but things change awful quickly when you become an aging MMA fighter.”

Do you think Jim Miller will defeat Nikolas Motta at UFC Vegas 48?