Jim Miller will make his 48th UFC appearance this Saturday, Nov. 14, when he meets Terrance McKinney in a lightweight bout on the UFC 334 prelims at Madison Square Garden. Championship Rounds flagged the matchup on X over the weekend, and the fight is slotted on the Paramount+ preliminary card that starts at 7 p.m. ET, a couple of hours before Ciryl Gane makes the first defense of his heavyweight title against Josh Hokit in the main event.
The line that follows Miller into every fight week is a peculiar one. As Athlon Sports noted Tuesday, he is the only fighter to have competed at UFC 100, UFC 200 and UFC 300. Plenty of fighters have had long careers. Nobody else has been standing in the cage for all three of those round-number nights, and now he adds a stop at MSG in front of one of the more stacked cards of the year, with Kayla Harrison defending the bantamweight belt against Amanda Nunes in the co-main.
The opponent is the story here. McKinney is a fighter who tends to make the scorecards irrelevant, and MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee picked this bout as his choice to steal the show in the outlet’s UFC 334 roundtable. Lee described Miller as ageless and pointed out that the veteran had other options as he chases 50 UFC appearances, noting that Miller has never been picky about who stands across from him.
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“There were definitely safer paths for Miller to take on his inexorable march to 50, but what would be the fun in that?”
That was Lee’s read on the matchmaking. His prediction for how it ends was even shorter: “As usual with McKinney, take the under.”
The oddsmakers lean the same way on the winner. MMA Junkie’s listed lines have McKinney at -220 and Miller at +180, which makes Miller one of the bigger underdogs on the prelims.
He’ll share that portion of the card with another longtime fixture. Stephen Thompson, 43, is set for his retirement fight against Charles Radtke, and Drew Dober meets Scotland’s Chris Duncan in a second lightweight scrap. It’s a prelim block heavy on fighters who have spent years being reliable on a Saturday night, which feels about right for where Miller has lived his whole UFC career.
If he gets past McKinney, the math gets simple. Two more appearances after this one would put him at 50.
My take: the fight itself tells you who Miller is better than any milestone graphic. A man sitting at 47 UFC appearances, with the only UFC 100/200/300 hat trick in existence, could have asked for a soft landing in New York. Instead he took the guy who throws everything in the first exchange and dared McKinney to find out whether the old man still has answers on the mat and in a scramble. I won’t pretend the +180 is a gift, but I’ve watched enough people count Miller out to stop doing it myself. Prelims start at 7 p.m. ET Saturday, and I’d be in my seat early.
