Jason 'Mayhem' Miller
Before The Ultimate Fighter season 14 started, some wondered what Jason “Mayhem” Miller would be like as a coach.
Mayhem is as colorful a character as there is in MMA, never one to hold his tongue, and doesn’t mind showing off a bit in his fights when it’s necessary.
Prior to the show, however, Mayhem’s teammates at the Reign Training Center immediately spoke up about his abilities as a coach.
“He’s a great teacher, and he breaks it down, and that’s the great thing about our gym,” Mark Munoz said about Miller before the show. “Mayhem’s misunderstood because a lot of people see him on ‘Bully Beatdown’ and see him as a vibrant and colorful personality, but at the same time he’s a student of the sport, and he’s been doing it for a long time. He can coach a lot of guys.”
Once he was on the show, Mayhem embraced his role as coach and his fighters definitely stepped up and worked hard for him for the entire six weeks.
While he had his own fight after the season with fellow coach Michael Bisping looming overhead, Miller kept his primary focus on the group of bantamweights and featherweights hoping to earn their shot at the UFC.
“It was easy. There’s a few things that I know, there’s few things that I really, really know, and fighting is one of them,” Mayhem told MMAWeekly Radio recently. “I feel I gave 100-percent to those guys the entire time I was there. I showed up to all the practices. I showed up to all the weigh-ins. I showed up to all the stuff. I was there even though I was in Vegas and I didn’t have a fight for six months. I was still there working and taking my job super seriously.”
Many of Miller’s fighters from the show raved about his coaching and willingness to get on the mats and work with them throughout the six-week process.
Miller believes it’s that approach that really shows the fighters what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong.
“The best way to do it is to feel it hands on. You have to go and do everything, and it’s way easier to get a feeling of what a guy is doing right or wrong when you’re rolling with them or sparring with them,” Miller said.
“I feel like I did a good job helping those guys.”
In past seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, the coaches have finished the show happy they helped a group of UFC hopefuls realize their dreams, but some wouldn’t jump at the chance to go back and do it all over again.
For Jason Miller, it was something he’ll never forget.
“It was like the best experience of my life,” Mayhem said. “I feel like it was not just taking for myself, but also giving to someone else; so that was way more satisfying.”
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