Jim Miller is the fighter with the most UFC bouts in history, but his story is coming to an end. The 39-year-old probably has a few more fights in him, but no one can say for certain whether he’s gonna do well in those. Bookies, for one, think he’s not going to cope well on Saturday when he squares off against Jared Gordon.
Jim Miller vs Jared Gordon Odds
Moneyline Odds
Jim Miller +140
Jared Gordon -170
*Odds taken from Sports Odds Direct on Thursday, June 1, 2023.
Jim Miller was originally supposed to fight Ludovit Klein at UFC on ESPN 46. The Slovak fighter is great when it comes to takedown defense, but his grappling skills on the floor aren’t that great, as evident from the fact that 50% of his losses happened by submission.
Knowing this, it’s only logical to assume that Miller’s original battle plan for Saturday was to take Klein down to the ground and beat him by submission. That’s something he excels in, the proof being that Miller’s submission-to-win ratio is 54.28%.
The trouble is that his new opponent is a proficient striker who won’t let Miller get anywhere near him. And history teaches us that “A-10” struggles against such fighters. In his most recent trip to the Octagon, Miller fought Alexander Hernandez who beat him by a unanimous decision.
Hernandez absolutely dominated that fight, throwing 108 significant strikes (41 more than Miller). It’s really surprising that he didn’t manage to drop Miller in that fight. But Jared Gordon might do it this coming Saturday.
Jared Gordon is 19-6-1, with his most recent fight being declared a no-contest due to an accidental clash of heads with Bobby Green. Before that, he lost to Paddy Pimblett by decision, even though many thought it was Gordon who won the fight.
Nevertheless, he’s got a chance to get back to the winning track on Saturday when he’s fighting a guy who just isn’t at the same level as him fitness-wise. Gordon is famous for his stamina, with 12 of his 26 fights going the distance. The most impressive thing about this is that each time he fights, he gets very busy, throwing huge volumes of strikes. In fact, his average is 5.32 significant strikes per minute, with a striking accuracy of just under 60%.
In the past, his opponents had no major problems with taking him down, but they struggled to put him into submission on the floor. In the fight against Joe Solecki in 2021, for example, Gordon was taken down four times but managed to defend himself each time.
In 2022, Grant Dawson took him down seven times, but it took almost full three rounds to finish Gordon with a rear naked choke. Since then, however, Gordon’s upped his takedown defense and hasn’t suffered a single takedown in the last three fights.
