411 MMA Interviews: Jason Miller

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 02.06.2012

UFC middleweight Jason "Mayhem" Miller sits down for an exclusive interview with 411's Jeffrey Harris! See what he has to say about his performance against Michael Bisping at the TUF 14 Finale, when he will fight in the Octagon next and more!

Controversial MMA fighter, Jason "Mayhem" Miller (0-2, UFC; 24-8, 1NC, MMA) made his return to the UFC last December as he faced fellow middleweight, Michael Bisping, at The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale. After coaching a highly entertaining viewed season, Mayhem lost by TKO in the third round to Bisping on the finale. While the fight was watched by approximately 3.5 million viewers (the highest rated viewership of the UFC on Spike TV since Kimbo Slice's fight on TUF two years earlier), Mayhem had what he admits was a "crap performance" as he appeared to gas very early and looked off his game.

Mayhem has now moved on from the experience and looks on to better and more positive things such as preparing for his next battle and also a new partnership with the youth board sport clothing and apparel company, Airwalk, which was recently announced. Earlier this week I got the chance to speak with the MMA veteran of DREAM, Strikeforce, and the UFC as well as host of the hit MTV series, Bully Beatdown, regarding his recent adventures and current projects:



Jeffrey Harris: How did your partnership with Airwalk get started?

Jason Miller: Let's not call it a partnership. Let's call it brotherhood, a brotherhood. I think the craziest thing about this is, I dreamed of this as a little kid, riding my skateboard in my destroyed Airwalks that had duct tape all over them. And now it's a reality. My life twists and turns in these weird ways, up and down, left and right. And now I'm sitting pretty, having one of the first major brands that moved towards the sport of mixed martial arts. And not only am I honored in that, but I feel like it's the perfect relationship. I feel like I embody the message that they are trying to go for which is fearlessness in the face of adversity.

Jeffrey Harris: So in this brotherhood will they be making Mayhem themed shirts, shorts, and various gear for you?

Jason Miller: I feel like we're on the same wavelength, so I'm sure that would be a possibility. I feel like we're going into a direction now that is untouched by mixed martial artists, and I feel like I have to have some Airwalk tight pants. You know what I'm saying?

Jeffrey Harris: Do you plan on designing any of the products for this brotherhood?

Jason Miller: I am going to go in there and wrestle a designer until he puts on exactly what I want.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you have a specific design or style you want to go for? Typically with MMA apparel and clothing it's very a hardcore, extreme with bold designs and things like that?

Jason Miller: Flames! A pit bull with biceps! Also some skulls, and also I want to get the pit bull but with biceps to be choking a skull to death because that's mixed martial arts apparel is all about.

Jeffrey Harris: And you grew up with this brand so this like a brand you worshipped and followed your whole life like Disney for animation philes?

Jason Miller: Yeah it's crazy. Almost, almost except that stupid lobster that sings in The Little Mermaid.

Jeffrey Harris: His name is Sebastian the crab.

Jason Miller: *Mayhem starts singing lyrics from The Little Mermaid.* "The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake! You think about going up there, but that is a big mistake!" How do you like that? I'm all about Sebastian, bro.

Jeffrey Harris: What have you been up to since the Bisping fight last December?

Jason Miller: Straight adventure. I pretty much collected a bunch of stories in my head that I'll be able to tell my great, great grandkids if they download my brain onto a computer. I'm sure that's coming around the corner any time now. So I feel like – I went to Holland, did kickboxing out there. I've been on some outdoor adventures including one where put the mountain bike over the top of my head and jumped back on it and rode it out twenty miles or so. Man, I feel like I've done so much since that day, that fight is a million miles behind me.

Jeffrey Harris: So has it really been about getting that fight, that performance out of your head and moving on to the next one?

Jason Miller: Yeah, absolutely man, absolutely. The only way to live life is to push forward. You have no other choice. If you decide in your head that like, "OK. That's it. I had a bad night. Now I'm going to bury my head in the sand," you will never move forward as a human being, as an athlete, as an entity; as a singular entity. It's not going to happen. Your choices in life no matter who you are or what your station [is] in life, from sweeping the floor to owning the building, you got to stay positive and push forward. That's the only thing you can do. You don't have another choice. If you decide to make another choice then euthanasia; that's the only other thing you can do. Might as well.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you have a time table in mind on when you would like to fight again this year?

Jason Miller: Man, I'm just going to be in shape and with all these people dropping out of fights, I feel like I'll have a good chance on getting on another card before they tell me I am. My whole life, I pretty much can't think of a time where I wasn't standing across from somebody with my hands up about to fight them. I can't think of that. I don't know if I'm ever going to not like that feeling. I don't feel that's ever going to go away. I'll just be in shape and be ready to go the next time.

Jeffrey Harris: So you don't really mind who ever it is next as long as you are in shape and ready to go?

Jason Miller: Yeah. Look, the only guys that can beat me in the UFC have already beat me. So I got nothing to lose. I'm ready to fight who ever. I know that I can beat anybody in the UFC. I'm ready to do it.

Jeffrey Harris: What about Demian Maia?

Jason Miller: Yeah, I can whip his ass. Actually, that would be a great fight.

Jeffrey Harris: A lot of your fans speculated that this being your first fight back in the UFC after quite a while –

Jason Miller: Not only that, that was my first fight after a year and a half. It's not exactly -- – it was a really crap performance against a really tough dude, but I feel like I can't make excuses for that night. But I fought a really tough dude after a year and a half layoff. That's terrible. I feel like I really underperformed for my fans and that's just – I mean you can have a bad night. That's part of life. That's part of the sport especially.

Jeffrey Harris: Not to make excuses on your behalf, but just with his performance against Chael Sonnen on UFC on Fox, I think Michael Bisping is a highly underrated.

Jason Miller: Absolutely. You can hate him, but [he's] a good fighter. You don't have to stop hating him, but you got to respect his skills. The guy is good.

Jeffrey Harris: You hadn't fought in the cage in a while. It had been a while since your last fight. But fans speculated, was there a lot more pressure on you going into this with all those factors going in, was there an adrenaline dump going on at all before the fight?

Jason Miller: *Laughs* Yeah, I took an adrenaline dump, that's for sure. *Laughs* Yeah, I guess that's the best way to say it. I don't even worry about it. I kind of know what I did wrong. I don't make excuses. I don't even make excuses to myself. Like I said, I'm pushing forward. I can't wait until I get the next one. I feel like with Airwalk, I don't know, I just feel like I have magic at my finger tips.

Jeffrey Harris: Does it make you feel better at all that your season of The Ultimate Fighter was a highly rated season, and the finale drew some pretty significant ratings even being the last UFC show on Spike TV? You and Bisping had the most viewed fight on Spike since the Kimbo Slice season of TUF. A lot of people came out to watch you.

Jason Miller: Yeah absolutely. Man, I got fans around the block. You wouldn't know I lost the fight that's for sure. I can't believe how many people support me. I'm so thankful for that. I remain positive because I feel like the fact that I have these people – I can see, even when I have a bad performance, I can see how much people get behind me and how much people respect me. I feel like that right there can carry me far beyond the next level. I feel like that's a source of power. And I didn't realize it until after this fight, but man, I have people who care.

Jeffrey Harris: I think you did a tremendous job coaching your team, Team Mayhem, on TUF. Two of your team members went to the finals: Dennis Bermudez and John Dodson. John Dodson beat Team Bisping's T.J. Dillashaw. Dennis Bermudez lost in a crazy, awesome fight to Diego Brandao. Even in a losing effort it was an impressive performance. What do you think of your team members and what they did on the show?

Jason Miller: I'm really proud [because] you got to think we're only training and working out together for six weeks. I have to respect – I felt like a lot of those guys just grew, and including myself, grew as people from doing that show. You know, grew as men. And I feel like that's an underrated thing in our society, growing as a man is something that's necessary for every male. Like every male has to grow into a man, and it felt like I was watching that over the six weeks that we were together including with myself. It makes me very proud to have been a part of that in any way. They did the work, but I felt like I'm very proud just to have been a part of it.

Jeffrey Harris: I know you mentioned doing some training in Holland, but are you associated with any team or training camp at the moment or are you looking to transition?

Jason Miller: Well I mean right now, I train with the Reign Training Center in Lake Forest, California which is Mark Munoz, Krzysztof Soszynski; I have a good team of guys. But we also have a partnership with Kings MMA, so we go there and train. And also I've become with Siyar Bahadurzada who has trained at Golden Glory for a long time. And I can go to Holland and train with his guys out there from time to time. Really I feel like that's definitely a good camp for some kickboxing.

Jeffrey Harris: In your strategy for Airwalk, do you have a rollout strategy? And are there concerns about introducing new product in this economy after what happened with K-Swiss and FORM Athletics?

Jason Miller: I feel like we're taking a whole different direction . . . I feel like with Airwalk we're not going to make the same mistakes that other companies have had like trying to throw money at a problem instead of being smart.

Jeffrey Harris: I hear your hotdog dog is being naughty and causing trouble and getting baby mamas. Are you going to have to punish him and take care of that?

Jason Miller: Whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, let's get it straight. His name is Gator Hotdog Dog. That's his entire time. Gator Hotdog Dog, man, let me tell you what I've been dealing with. I haven't slept in three nights! At night, my hotdog dog is whining all night, he wants to go next door and bang the Chihuahua. That is absolutely unacceptable without a beef flavored condom.

Jeffrey Harris: Is he making some mutant dachshund/Chihuahua mix mongrels or something?

Jason Miller: It's called, my good sir, Chiweenies, and yes he is making them all over Southern California. I don't know. I guess he likes the Mexican chicks. I don't get it.

Jeffrey Harris: So PETA is not complaining to you, "You got to fix your dog, man?"

Jason Miller: Man, PETA can kiss my ass. If they want the dogs, they can have them.

Jeffrey Harris: Is it alright if I print because I would love to print that?

Jason Miller: Yeah, please print PETA can kiss my ass. I feel like they're terrorists. You know what? I don't negotiate with terrorists. I hope somebody throws a bucket of red paint on me, I would love – I would just tackle them and hug them with my red paint.

Jeffrey Harris: A guy you have no love loss for, Nick Diaz, he's fighting for the title on Saturday night. Do you have a prediction or that fight?

Jason Miller: I have Diaz on that. I have a lot of love for Nick Diaz. I feel like I understand Nick Diaz more and more, and I feel like he's a working class hero. And I feel like he's one of the best fighters to watch on earth. I don't understand how anybody could not want to watch this fight. People misunderstand that I was picking a fight when really I just wanted to fight him. I respect him so why wouldn't I want to fight him?

Jeffrey Harris: So all that business is water under the bridge now with you two?

Jason Miller: Yeah man. I'm not the type of guy to hold a grudge.

Jeffrey Harris: Would you ever consider going to Cesar Gracie's for a training session with that crew at some point?

Jason Miller: Yeah absolutely man. If the door is open, I'll go over there. I'll go over there and hand over an apology to Cesar Gracie. *some background feedback noise interferes, Mayhem recounts a story about a name he once called Cesar Gracie* I'll apologize for that.

Jeffrey Harris: Thank you so much for your time. Are there any sponsors or people you would like to thank or give a shout out to?

Jason Miller: Yeah of course, Airwalk man.

Thank you to Mayhem for taking the time to speak with us and to the representatives of Airwalk for helping to arrange this interview.