12 Questions for Pat Miletich

Q: What are your thoughts on a fighters’ union?
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.

Q: Looking back, would you say there was a highlight or simply an emotional high in your career?
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.

Q: You won the first 15 fights of your career. Then you had the doctor’s stoppage against Matt Hume, and then you were undefeated for another nine fights until the Jutaro Nakao fight in SuperBrawl. What do you remember about that four-year run?
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.

Q: After such a long run in the fight game, are your goals more personal than professional now?
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.