Dan Miller, UFC middleweight up and comer and brother of Jim Miller who recently beat Duane Ludwig at UFN 20, was awarded his black belt after training for just 4 years by his instructor Jamie Cruz. Cruz, himself a Renzo Gracie black belt, awarded the black belt to Miller at the AMA Fight Club in New Jersey.

Dan Miller has won 7 out of 11 career victories by submission and will go up against possibly his stiffest competition when he takes on Jiu Jitsu wizard and UFC middleweight contender Damien Maia on the main card of UFC 109 at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas.

This will be Miller’s first fight after a loss to Chael Sonnen at UFC 98 and will get him back at the top of the division really quick, should he be able to best Maia, which is no mean task.

“The depression is over and now is just happiness, I’m ready for the war.”

Filho also touched upon a lot of topics such as his training with Andre Galvao, mentioning that this was a very important part of his training as Galvao and he traded experience and technique in Jiu Jitsu and MMA. Filho mentioned that there is a lot of weight that he needs to cut – him being at 93 kgs right now.

Paulo also spoke about his contract with the WEC mentioning that he has two fights left on his contract. On being asked about a potential match up against fellow Brazilian Anderson Silva for the UFC crown, Filho says that he will never fight Silva because he does not want to fight a countryman and a really close friend in Silva.

As far as Anderson’s fight against Patrick Cote goes, Filho predicts a quick and easy victory for the Brazilian superstar, saying

“Anderson will win, and I know it’ll be easy and fast. Cote isn’t fight for Anderson Silva, he’s a level above.”

He also predicted that “Toquinho” Rousimar Palhares will win the fight against Dan Henderson in the first round and that too via a leg lock.

When asked about his own fight in the WEC – the rematch against Chael Sonnen on September 10, Paulo had this to say:

I think he doesn’t wanna fight me again, lose another arm. There’s no strategy, is just fight and be ready to protect and attack.