Mixed martial arts (MMA) has its share of memorable characters, but few can approach the quotability and sheer awesomeness of Jason Miller, who years into his career remained one of the best interviews in the sport.
But after a two-fight losing streak that followed his stint as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 14, it was announced that "Mayhem" was released by the organization, perhaps in no small part thanks to what Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White referred to as a backstage "incident" following his decision loss to C.B. Dollaway at UFC 146 last night (Sat., May 26, 2012) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It's not the first dust-up Miller has been a part of. After butting in on Jake Shields' post-fight interview after Shields decisioned Dan Henderson in their 2010 Strikeforce fight, Miller was part of the epic scuffle that involved the Diaz brothers in an embarrassing scene, on a nationally televised program, to boot.
It's too bad, too, because Miller is a charismatic figure and a fun guy to watch.
He came up horribly flat in his stoppage loss to Michael Bisping back on Dec. 3, 2011, and showed some improvement in spots against Dollaway, but at the end of the day, Miller's limited stand-up and wrestling ability were two chinks in his armor that worked readily against him.
You get the feeling that in this match-up, the powers that be engineered the precise conditions to cut their losses, as there was no way Dollaway wouldn't be denied takedowns, allowing him to essentially stifle Miller en route to a one-sided decision win. That being said, whatever the incident was that White referred to didn't help matters.
Jason Probst can be reached at jasonprobst@gmail.com or twitter.com/jasonprobst.