Steven Siler
TUF vets meet at UFC on FX 2
Cole Miller might have some good ol’ fashioned revenge on his mind when he takes the Octagon for his next fight.
Miller will drop from lightweight to featherweight and meet Steven Siler when the UFC returns to Australia in two months. The UFC announced Miller’s drop to 145 pounds and the fight late Thursday.
Miller (18-5, 7-3 UFC), a contestant on Season 5 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” will look for some Miller family payback against Siler, who eliminated his brother Micah to earn entrance into the TUF 14 house last season. Miller seeks his fourth two-fight winning streak in the UFC – though he’s never been able to bump those runs to three. He started his career 2-0 in the UFC with a TUF 5 Finale win over Andy Wang and a decision win over Leonard Garcia three months later. After a loss to Jeremy Stephens, he beat Jorge Gurgel and Junie Browning, then loss to Efrain Escudero. He put together another short run with wins over Dan Lauzon and Ross Pearson before falling to Matt Wiman last January. He got back in the win column in August with a submission of TJ O’Brien.
Siler (19-9, 1-0 UFC) beat Micah Miller to get into the TUF house, but once there he wasn’t much of a factor. He lost to eventual featherweight winner Diego Brandao in just 30 seconds in their quarterfinal bout. But he got a shot at the UFC on the TUF 14 Finale card and beat Josh Clopton by unanimous decision. The Utah-based fighter started his MMA career with just a 5-7 record, but has since gone 14-2. His only two losses in that stretch came to Chad Mendes before Mendes joined the WEC and UFC vet Cole Escovedo.
Miller and Siler will likely be part of the preliminary card of UFC on FX 2, which takes place March 3 at the Allphones Arena (formerly Acer Arena) in Sydney, though the time difference means the broadcast will air Friday night in the United States. The card features a main event welterweight bout between former title challenger Thiago Alves and Martin Kampmann, plus the two semifinal bouts of the UFC’s flyweight tournament between Joseph Benavidez and Yasuhiro Urushitani, and Demetrious Johnson and Ian McCall.