Cole Miller Q&A: Reckless Style, Love for Chick-Fil-A, Riding Vespas,
Cole Miller began his near 10-year run with the UFC in 2007 as a cast member and competitor on season 5 of The Ultimate Fighter. Nicknamed “Magrinho” which means “Skinny” in Portuguese, the 6’1″ Miller was one of the taller and lengthier fighters in the organization’s lightweight and featherweight divisions. Tony Reid of MyMMANews.com caught up with Miller for a fun Q&A.
Tony Reid -What is the best thing nobody knows about you?
Cole Miller – “That’s a tough thing to quantify. I am a Vespa nerd. I bought a 50cc 2012 Vespa. I enjoy riding it. I get like 80 miles to the gallon. I put a bunch of performance parts on it, too.”
Tony Reid – Best advice you could give to a younger you?
Cole Miller – “Don’t be so stupid. Train a lot smarter. With your reckless style understand that you will have a lot of surgeries. If you started training more defense at a younger age or point in your career you wouldn’t be so fucked up in the end.”
Tony Reid – Best inspiration to fight?
Cole Miller – “I don’t really care about fighting. I really enjoy training in the martial arts. That’s what keeps me going. There is nothing in the fight game that is really keeping me here anymore other than the money and the fact that I thoroughly love getting in the cage.”
Tony Reid – Best memory from your first fight?
Cole Miller – “I don’t have a good memory from my first fight. I have one from my second fight though. I fought twice in one night, the very first time I fought mixed martial arts. I had been training for about 5 months. It was very gratifying when I submitted my second opponent. I won the tournament, I got the cool trophy. That was very gratifying. But nothing tops the Jorge Gurgel fight at UFC 86. That fight was my best moment in mixed martial arts. I tore my knee in the first round, I was lacerated in three spots, and I had some health issues the day before that looked very grim. The fact that I was able to fight and submit a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and a very good on in Jorge Gurgel, that was my greatest moment.”
Tony Reid – What was the best thing about MMA compared to other sports?
Cole Miller – “The best thing is that you are doing martial arts. You are trusting yourself. I’m not a very competitive person. I don’t feel great about dominating another person or always having to be the best. I just want to test myself and see if I can pull off the skills that I have learned from my instructors. Trying to make all these things happen in the cage with another martial artist at the highest level of the sport. That’s what makes it special.”
Tony Reid – Which feels best a knockout or a submission?
Cole Miller – “They feel the same to me. I’m just looking to finish the guy. Either way, the fight is over and you won hands down. Nobody can say the judges decided it. Nobody can say “If I had one more round I could have done this…” Nobody can say you were playing the points game. With a finish it’s just final. There are no ifs ands or buts.”
Tony Reid – Best opponent?
Cole Miller – “The best fighter I fought was Bart Palaszewski but the guy that showed me the most in a fight and the guy that made me become a better person was Jorge Gurgel.”
Tony Reid – Best way to get pumped before a fight?
Cole Miller – “I don’t know if there is anything I do specifically to get “ready” but here is what I do…When I get to the locker room I am already ready to go. Burt says “We rollin’ baby!” and it’s time to go. I just makes sure I put one foot in front of the other and make sure I don’t trip on my way out to the Octagon. I don’t think about taxes or any other bullshit that’s going on in my life. It’s time to do what I do.”
Tony Reid – Best job before becoming a fighter?
Cole Miller – “I worked at a bagel bakery. We mad bagels, melts, little pizza bagels, croissants and stuff like that. It was a really cool breakfast spot. I worked will all my friends so that was that! That was definitely one of the coolest jobs. You didn’t have one job to do. You rang people out, you filled ice, and you made bagels. That was my coolest job because I got to hang out with all my homies.”
Tony Reid – Best cartoon character resemblance?
Cole Miller – “My old coach said I look like Mr. Fantastic. I just long and lanky.”
Tony Reid – Best guilty pleasure?
Cole Miller – “I don’t know if it’s my best but the first one that comes to mind is peanut butter cups. As a kid I really liked the Reese’s peanut butter cups but as I got older I can only eat about two of them before I would get sick to my stomach. Now I like the Paul Newman’s ones that I get at Whole Foods now. It’s the dark chocolate and peanut butter. Oh, oh wait, another one is Chick-Fil-A. I go there and demolish that place.”
Tony Reid – Best lesson life has handed you?
Cole Miller – “There is only what you do and what you don’t do in life. There is what you do and what you should have done. The actions that you have done and proved and then judging yourself on that you didn’t do that you should have done.”
