Cole Miller Looks To Rebound Against The Other Lauzon
Chuck sent this in:
Hard to believe, but Cole Miller was the second least-fighterly presence on the Ultimate Fighter 5; the first was Joe Lauzon, who beat Miller in the quarterfinals that season. Even if you squinted, neither guy was what you’d call “imposing,” and neither talked very effective smack. Miller’s nickname is “Magrinho”—which means “skinny” in Portuguese, so designated by American Top Team owner Ricardo Liborio because of his lanky 6-foot-1 frame—and Joe was described by Dana White as looking like a computer nerd.
And yet what was revealed was that both guys are incredibly technical fighters who continue to succeed in the UFC to this day, which sort of gives credence to the whole never judge a book by its cover thing. Miller’s Jiu-Jitsu and boxing remain his strongest suits, but his all-around game has intriguing depth. There’s a feeling that he’s barely scratched the surface.
Here we are nearly three years later since that time, and the lightweight prospect Miller has won four times in the Octagon and is getting ready to face “The Upgrade”—Joe’s younger brother, Dan Lauzon—at UFC 108 this Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. If the Lauzon brothers are passing notes on how to beat Miller, well, they may as well save the paper.
“I’m sure they’ve already talked about it,” Miller says. “But I’m a different fighter than I was three years ago, or whenever that was I was on TUF. I am sure they have watched video and came up with what they think is a very good game plan.”
Beating Cole Miller has proven to be a bit of a headache since his first crashing victory in the UFC against Andy Wang in June of 2007. He followed that up with a decision over Leonard Garcia, and, after getting beat by the more seasoned Jeremy Stephens (TKO), he bounced back and won consecutive fights against Jorge Gurgel and Junie Browning.
Miller was primed to score his biggest victory to date against undefeated TUF alum Efrain Escudero at UFC 103 in Dallas, but he was outfoxed by the former collegiate wrestler. What happened? In short: Against his better judgment, Miller accelerated into attack mode too early and got caught.
“The game plan was to be patient, and I started off the fight very patient and was fighting very well, but as soon as I got taken down I tried to rush things—I tried to do a little too much,” says the ATT standout. “I went in there trying to throw a jab, and I threw it from too far away, and that’s when he caught me with the left hook. And that was the beginning of the end. I didn’t follow the game plan. I made a very rookie type of move.”
Though he’s certainly no rookie, the 25-year-old Miller had to chalk the whole thing up to experience. Now he looks to come back strong against Lauzon, who is entering his first fight in the UFC since a loss to Spencer Fisher at UFC 64 when he was barely 18 years old. With Lauzon having gained valuable fight experience over the last couple of years and riding an eight-fight win streak, Miller says he knows one thing—he’ll have his hands full come January 2.
“When I look at Dan the one thing that stands out is he’s kind of big for a 55er,” he says. “He’s 6-0, so I’ve got a little bit of height on him—but he’s pretty big. He walks around quite a bit heavier than I do. Other than that, pretty much every single guy I’ve fought in the UFC, I know that my skills are more technical than them, it’s just about putting it together on fight day.”
The times that Miller has brought (and used) his entire tool-set he has put on some memorable performances in the cage. Against the Jiu-Jitsu ace Gurgel, Miller turned the tide late in the third round and improbably submitted the well-known grappler. Against Browning—who had been very vocal before the fight and drew Miller’s ire—he sunk a guillotine choke early in the first, and brushed the dirty work off his hands as if to say “all in a day’s work.”
If there’s one thing Miller (15-4) is looking to do against Lauzon (12-2) it’s to gain a good head of steam to help propel him towards bouts with the likes of the top lightweights in the division. Momentum is something that’s been elusive to the young fighter thus far, and it’s a troublesome trend.
“It’s important for me to start 2010 off right with a win, so I can build that momentum and keep it rolling,” he says. “Momentum is so important for me, and it seems like every single time I build some it really gets disrupted. I wanted to get back in there [after the Stephens loss] and get something started, but it was six months before I was able to fight Jorge Gurgel. I was going to fight in Atlanta at UFC 88, but then I had to have knee surgery after the Gurgel fight from him kicking me in the legs. It was nine months later until I fought Junie Browning, and, though I didn’t even get hit in that fight it took me five months to get the fight with Efrain.”
Asking Miller what he thinks will happen once they close the cage doors is fun—he yawns as he ponders an outcome, then dishes up the sort of prognostication that only man of technical obsessions can.
“I think that this fight will be over by submission in the early minutes of the third round,” he says. To further clear up his vision, he adds: “I will not be getting submitted.”
Miller has come a long way in a relatively short time. He began training in Athens, Georgia and within a couple of months was the best student in his school. The one-time bagel/sandwich shop worker was also a very good baseball player and had a chance to pursue that path as well. But a college load and the reality that he’d never hit for power left him pondering his first love—mixed martial arts—and so he took a semester off in 2006 to pursue it. Next thing you know, he landed a fight in Japan, then got the call that he’d made the Ultimate Fighter, then he beat Wang on the show’s finale card, and just like that the whole thing was in motion.
“Athletically, I am just not very gifted,” he says. “I’m a different type of athlete. I will never have a fast 40 time. I will never have a high vertical. I am not like an athlete like that. I’m not super strong, but I can wear on people, and I’m slowly becoming more and more explosive. It’s something you work on, same as boxing and Jiu-Jitsu.”
Explosive enough to test the waters against the elite lightweights in the game, and continue to raise a few eyebrows.
“I think about where I belong in the UFC, and I definitely see that I am somewhere in the middle of the weight class right now, but I know I have what it takes to beat some of these top guys,” he says. “It’s about getting to fight them, and about winning against these other mid-tier fighters to get to them. I know that I have what it takes to beat some of these top guys. But right now I’m looking to gain momentum and restart my winning streak at one.”
