Jim Miller unsure if UFC 300 will be his last fight but he ‘would get excited’ to face someone like Matt Brown on the card

A few years ago, Jim Miller declared his plans to fight until at least UFC 300, which sounded like a lofty ambition at the time.

After previously competing at both UFC 100 and UFC 200, Miller felt like UFC 300 would be the perfect bookend on his career, which already included more than 30 fights in the promotion and a sterling reputation as the kind of athlete who’d face anyone, anywhere, and at any time. UFC 300 also seemed so far away, like an abstract goal in the distant future, which motivated Miller to keep going until he could reach the finish line.

Following a blistering 23-second knockout in his most recent outing, which now accounts for the fastest finish in his illustrious 54-fight career, Miller started to realize that his expected retirement date was looming much sooner than he expected. In fact, based on the current schedule, UFC 300 will likely take place in March or April 2024, which has Miller second guessing the time left in his career.

“Back in the day, a couple of years ago, [I thought,] ‘That’s far enough away.’ It was probably in 2020 when I mentioned it,” Miller told MMA Fighting. “I feel good. I’m performing well. I definitely still want to fight on the card. I just don’t know if it will be the last one yet. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough.”

With a 4-1 record over his past five fights, with every win coming by knockout or submission, Miller is obviously still performing at a very high level.

The New Jersey native has also found his groove when dividing his time between training at the gym, spending time at home with his family, and working on other endeavors outside the fight game. In a strange way, Miller is sort of peaking right now, but he’s also cognizant that he can’t fight forever.

That’s why he wants to set a date for his retirement, even if the 39-year-old veteran can’t say for certain it will still happen at UFC 300.

“The thing of it is, I want to go out knowing that fight that I’m walking to is going to be my last time,” Miller explaind. “That’s the biggest thing to me. I want to be preparing for my final MMA fight. I want to be walking to my final MMA fight knowing that it’s my final MMA fight. Because that puts me in that nothing to lose realm. There’s nothing to hold back for.

“I’m not going to be the type that retires and comes back. My goal is to be able to put the energy that I put into fighting into other stuff. The next thing. I’m excited for that, I really am. I just don’t know if another 11 months is enough for me. I’m still addicted. I’m still addicted to the feeling. During the warmup for this last one, I was thinking I might only be doing this for another year or so. I’m going to miss this s***.”

While Miller absolutely still intends on competing at UFC 300 regardless of whether it’s his final fight, he’s also adamant that UFC 300 won’t be his next appearance, because he still wants to return again before 2023 is finished.

If that seems like a risk with UFC 300 targeted for early-to-mid 2024, Miller counters by pointing out that he’s never played it safe throughout his storied career, so why should he start now?

“I’m going to get another one by the end of the year,” Miller said. “I didn’t get to this point by being conservative. I didn’t have this career being conservative. I misspoke, somebody put it out from the post-presser — I want to finish my career like how I started my career, which is being active and beating anybody I can. My goal isn’t to just sit it out.

“I hurt myself now doing stupid stuff. Like absolutely stupid stuff. Back in December, I partially tore my patella tendon in my left knee bending over to pick up the corner of a wrapper from a granola bar. I bent over and it’s like, ‘Bang,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh s***,’ and I had to walk it off. So then I spent the next seven weeks of a training camp being super protective of my knees. I could sit on the shelf and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to wrap myself in bubble wrap and not fight until UFC 300,’ and I could hurt myself bending over in the garden or stubbing my toe or something like that. We are at that point that I can hurt myself doing stupid stuff and I’m actually safer when I am going hard, because that’s when I put the armor on, I’m protecting myself.”

As far as ideal opponents for UFC 300, Miller has never handpicked his fights and he certainly won’t start now, although he does like the idea of facing off against another legend of the sport.

One name in particular that was suggested and interests him is Matt Brown, who just tied the all-time record for knockouts in UFC history after he finished Court McGee back in May. Miller holds a few records of his own, including the most wins in UFC history, so it would seem almost fitting for those two to battle it out on a monumental card like UFC 300.

“I think it would be a fun fight,” Miller said. “Matt, he’s an absolute fan favorite. I love watching him fight. We fought on a local card here in Jersey together in 2006, it was like some school gym, so I’ve known about Matt for quite some time. That’d be an awesome one for UFC 300.

“That’s a fight I would get excited about. There’s something fun about fighting up at 170 [pounds] too. Just the difference that I felt in fight week for that last [Donald] Cerrone fight was awesome. It was awesome to not really be worried about weight, and when I stepped into the octagon, I felt like I had all the energy. It kind of bugged me, like, why the hell do I cut to 155? Why do I put myself through this? Why do we do this s***? But yeah, that would be a fun one.”