The Fight you should know about – Chael Sonnen vs. Dan Miller

The main card matchup between Chael Sonnen and Dan Miller hasn’t been discussed a whole lot, except among the most ardent UFC fans, of course.

But it has the makings of an intriguing, close matchup between a jiu-jitsu specialist in Miller and a top-flight wrestler in Sonnen. It also could have more of an impact on the pecking order in the middleweight division than most people realize.

Because the division is starved for contenders and Miller could suddenly vault up the rankings with a signature win in combination with his sterling record of 11-1.

Sonnen has had a very good career and faced some tough competition, but most of the time, he has fallen short in his prime time matches. He lost to former WEC star Paulo Filho but he was able to avenge that loss, proving he is capable of adapting.

He has been submitted multiple times, however, most recently by Demian Maia. There’s no shame in being submitted by Maia, who is one of the best middleweight fighters around and perhaps the top jiu-jitsu guy in all of MMA these days, but it is part of a trend. Jeremy Horn also submitted Sonnen as did Filho in their first fight.

Sonnen has a tendency to be a bit too stubborn in his quest to gain position with his wrestling and finish his opponents by ground and pound, and that is both his strength and his weakness in many cases.

Miller seems like just the right combination of solid wrestling skill and jiu-jitsu prowess to take out Sonnen. With that in mind, Sonnen might instead opt to keep this fight standing to throw a curveball and also work on what some consider is one of his lesser areas.

Because of Miller’s versatility, however, he should eventually take control of the fight and expose some of Sonne’s weaknesses. Sonnen is one of the best wrestlers in the UFC but his game still needs a lot of refining and Miller will be able to expose some of those weaknesses in front of a big crowd in Las Vegas for UFC 98.

This could be the coming out party that Miller has waited for, and it should be his fourth straight win in four tries since entering the world’s premiere MMA organization from the International Fight League.