BALTIMORE - Jim Miller's victory celebration was a bit delayed on Saturday night. The reason? Miller had choked his UFC 172 opponent, Yancy Medeiros unconscious with a guillotine choke. With Medeiros lying across his body, Miller had to wait for his opponent to wake from his brief slumber before he could extract himself from under Medeiros' body and fully celebrate his 13th win in the UFC's lightweight division.
Once Miller (24-4-0-1) was able to get to his feet, he raised his hands in celebration, pointed to the crowd, before stopping to shake the hand of UFC matchmaker Joe Silva. When Miller engaged Silva the two shared a few words. When asked what he said at that moment, Miller replied, "I said I want to move up in the division, I want to fight the guys ahead of me so I can move up the ranks, and start fighting the best."
When Miller was interviewed by UFC commentator Joe Rogan he echoed what he had told Silva, this time naming the four lightweights ranked ahead of him that are currently without fights, "Give me Khabib (Nurmagomedov), Josh Thomson, TJ Grant, Cowboy (Donald Cerrone) or (Rafael) Dos Anjos, I want to move up."
Miller's victory over Medeiros was his second straight first round submission victory.