Trevor Williams/Sherdog.com
Miletich knew little of
Jutaro Nakao before they
met in the ring.
A: I think it will happen, I think it has to happen. I think the sport is big enough now where it’s going to happen without a doubt. It’s just a matter of it being organized. A fighters’ union is obviously needed.
A: The first time fighting in a big show was an emotional high, winning the four-man tournament in the UFC was pretty big. I just remember signing my first autograph after I won my fight. I had sweat and tears falling down on the paper I was signing. So pretty neat. Pretty neat feeling.
A: When I fought Matt Hume, I was a little overwhelmed. I think I was ranked fourth in the world at the time, fourth or fifth, and he was ranked number one. I was pretty overwhelmed by the cameras and stuff. You know, I had a dear-in-the-headlights type of thing. I was doing quite well. I took him down several times and things like that and then the doctors stopped the fight because they thought my nose was broken.
The fight against Jutaro Nakao, when I lost again later on in my career, that was a situation that was really weird. I had defended my title in the UFC at that time against Jorge Patino from Brazil, and then I fought a pro boxing match a week later and the week after that I was in Hawaii fighting Jutaro Nakao. And I had no idea who Jutaro Nakao was. I was supposed to be fighting a really easy fight in that one, and that guy backed out and they brought in Jutaro Nakao. I remember being in the locker room before that fight and I said to Frank Shamrock, “Are you familiar with this guy that I’m fighting?” I was warming up, getting ready to go out. And Frank Shamrock goes, “Yeah, I know a lot about him.” And I go, “How good is he?” And he goes, “Are you serious?” I go, “Yeah.” And he goes, “He’s really f------ good.”
And so that was a little surprising. I don’t think I had a bad fight against him. I took him down a couple of times, he hit me with a good liver kick, and then I took him down after that. I had already gotten out of one of his triangles and passed the guard and mounted him and stuff. And he got me in the triangle again and I thought, “Yeah, no big deal, I’ll get out of it.” And I went to start getting out of it, the next thing I know I woke up and he was standing on the ropes and the crowd was cheering. He’s got a pretty good triangle.
A: When I had my neck injury that lasted for so long, my body was dictating to me what I could do. All my injuries that I’ve ever had in my career, through my mind I was able to defeat those injuries and, no matter what, get out and do well and win the world title and have a good career. I want to be the one mentally who can overpower my body. I’ve done that through rehab and just convincing myself that I can do it and made my neck strong again. I want to be the one that tells my body when it’s time to quit, not my body telling me.