Jim Miller says he’s ready to retire, and he’s already done the math. Three more fights, then he’s gone.
The longtime lightweight told Cole Shelton on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com that his 50th UFC fight will be his final one, regardless of how he’s performing when he gets there. Countdown No. 1 is Saturday, when Miller meets Terrance McKinney on the UFC 334 prelims at Madison Square Garden. That bout is his 48th inside the Octagon, and the oddsmakers aren’t sentimental about it: Miller is a +180 underdog, according to TelecomAsia.
He knows a hot finish would make the exit tougher, and he said so plainly.
View post on X
“It might be a hard pill to swallow; if I win out, that’s a four-fight winning streak,” Miller said. “It will be hard, but I am ready to move on. I am ready to focus on other stuff. I’ve dragged this on for a long, long time. I was preparing to retire at UFC 200 before I found out I had Lyme disease. It’s been a privilege to come back from that point.”
That UFC 200 detail is a wild one. Miller had one foot out the door that summer, and he’s still booking fights years later at the Garden.
He also cleared up some contract chatter. After his last fight, word got around that he’d signed a new deal, and Miller called it a miscommunication. His position is simple: whatever he signed should be his last fights, done at 50.
“This sport has been great to me, it’s given me a lot, it’s taken a lot and I would like to maybe box once or twice and lace the wrestling shoes back up with RAF,” he said. “Kind of slide away from the sport of MMA.”
So the gloves aren’t going in a trophy case just yet. Miller wants a boxing match or two and some wrestling in RAF once the UFC chapter closes.
The recent stretch makes the timing interesting. Miller returned at UFC 328 in May after more than a year off with a pelvis injury, a layoff that also saw his 14-year-old son beat a very rare childhood cancer, per BJPenn.com. He came back and beat Jared Gordon, then repeated his goal of reaching 50 UFC fights. Benson Henderson, who fought Miller back in 2011, said afterward that Miller is “holding it down for us old guys.” Before that layoff, Miller fought Chase Hooper at UFC 314 in Miami in April 2025.
Earlier this week Miller also told BJPenn.com he expects to beat McKinney violently and floated a rematch with Beneil Dariush. Back in May he hinted at a future move to 170 pounds. Neither is booked.
My take: I love this. Fighters almost never pick a number and stick to it, and Miller is doing it with a two-fight runway after Saturday and zero interest in a farewell tour that drags into his 50s. Guys who answer the retirement question straight are rare. Guys who answer it straight while walking in as a +180 dog against Terrance McKinney are rarer. Fight No. 48 is Saturday, November 14, at Madison Square Garden, and after that the countdown is down to two.
