Final Preventing Championship (UFC) Light-weight veterans Bobby Inexperienced and Jim Miller this weekend (Sat., April 13, 2024) inside T-Cell Area in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC 300.
There’s nothing I admire greater than two very long time veterans with simply left within the tank. Inexperienced has been combating constantly since 2008 and is 37 years previous, but that didn’t cease “King” from blitzing unbeaten up-and-comer Grant Dawson for a 33-second knockout win final 12 months. He’s again within the rankings for the third time now regardless of not being at his peak — a transparent show of expertise and ability alike.
Miller, in the meantime, is defying all expectations. At 40 years of age, Miller has seemingly absolutely recovered from his longterm battle with Lyme illness — how is that even attainable? — to win 5 of his final six fights, all through stoppage.
Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at the betting odds and strategic keys for every athlete:
Inexperienced vs. Miller Betting Odds
How Inexperienced Wins
Bobby Inexperienced is a sharpshooter. Even late in his profession, he’s nonetheless tremendously fast with nice response time, two traits which are vastly useful in controlling distance and selecting off his foes with sharp counters. As well as, Inexperienced’s all the time been an underrated wrestler, capable of maintain his personal in opposition to everybody not-named Islam Makhachev.
Pace kills, and per normal, it’s Inexperienced’s nice benefit and key to victory on this combat. Jim Miller is an aggressive Southpaw who likes to stress and fireplace counters together. His stance will make Inexperienced’s jab a bit harder to land, however fortuitously, Inexperienced can modify by working his personal right-handed jab extra typically.
It shouldn’t be laborious to bait Miller ahead — that’s his pure inclination. Inexperienced’s objective is to be first and third together, which means he pokes Miller with a jab/fast cross, evades or blocks the return fireplace, then sticks Miller with two extra punches earlier than exiting safely. If Inexperienced is each initiating and ending exchanges, he’s going to rack up a ton of factors, and the pace differential solely grows because the slower combat takes increasingly pictures.
How Miller Wins
Miller comes for blood. “A-10” discovered knockout energy late in his profession, which has served as the right praise to his high-level jiu-jitsu. Regardless of his age, Miller seems as sturdy and well-conditioned as ever, capable of push the tempo and keep within the face of younger, harmful opposition.
Slowing Inexperienced down a bit is Miller’s key to victory. Lately, Inexperienced’s well-known sturdiness has declined to extra human ranges, and Miller actually hits laborious sufficient to stun him. The issue will likely be discovering his chin with out getting touched up within the course of.
Miller’s resolution ought to be kicks and physique work. Miller has an ideal left low kick, which he’ll fireplace to the internal thigh in opposition to Orthodox opponents and low calf in opposition to fellow Southpaws. Inexperienced switches stances, so Miller ought to hammer each targets, punctuating mixtures (even when they miss) with that low left leg blast.
As well as, Inexperienced depends a variety of head motion. Whereas he’s slipping and rolling, the torso stays a reasonably static goal. Within the phrases of Ray Longo, Miller could be well-advised to “punch a gap in his f—king chest.”
Inexperienced vs. Miller Prediction
This can be a nice match up, and every man has a transparent avenue to victory.
Although Inexperienced has suffered extra losses than Miller in the previous couple of years, he’s additionally been combating the next stage of competitors. Courting again to 2020, Inexperienced has solely misplaced to ranked Lightweights, and he seemed fairly good in a number of of these fights, such because the back-and-forth brawl versus Rafael Fiziev.
Conversely, Miller has largely been feasting on unranked opposition. I like watching Miller knock out Contender Collection randoms as a lot as the subsequent man, however I can’t assist however really feel that Inexperienced’s latest document could be STELLAR if he had been dealing with the identical opponents as “A-10.”
Inexperienced has been combating at the next stage for some time, and I believe he demonstrates the distinction at Miller’s expense.
Prediction: Bobby Inexperienced victory (-195)