Mixed Martial Arts Career
Miletich started his MMA training at 26. Before this, Miletich trained in a Davenport karate school where he learned much of what he knows about karate. Miletich was largely influenced in his boxing aspirations by his uncle, Johnny "Miller" Miletich. (Johnny Miletich was a member of the U.S. boxing squad at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles and also fought professionally.)
Miletich trained with coach Alvino Peña at the Davenport Boxing Club. A friend from Chicago got him into a Renzo Gracie seminar. After training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) for a year, the same friend then got him into the Battle of the Masters, a MMA tournament held in Chicago in 1995.
Miletich continued fighting at smaller events and enjoyed success. He was undefeated through 15 fights before losing to Matt Hume. Three fights later Miletich fought in UFC 16 and won the first UFC lightweight tournament. At UFC 17.5: Ultimate Brazil, Miletich defeated Mikey Burnett to become the first UFC lightweight (under 200 lbs) champion. The UFC changed the weight class limits again in 2001, and Miletich became the champion of the new welterweight division.
In his fifth title defense (and first as a welterweight) at UFC 31 he lost to Carlos Newton by submission. This was his first UFC defeat. His next fight was a KO win over Shonie Carter at UFC 32. After this fight, Miletich moved up to the middleweight division. This was partly due to encouragement by UFC management and because his teammate, Matt Hughes, defeated Carlos Newton to win the UFC welterweight championship. Miletich returned to fight at his new weight at UFC 36, but quickly lost to Matt Lindland. Miletich decided to take some time away from professional fighting and recover from numerous chronic injuries. Miletich was scheduled to fight Frank Trigg at WFA 3 but pulled out due to injury. He returned in September 2006 to fight Renzo Gracie in an International Fight League (IFL) superfight, and submitted to a guillotine choke in the first round. Miletich spoke briefly after the fight about re-aggravating his old neck injury before the Gracie fight. Miletich's last fight was in December 2008 where he scored a second-round KO over Thomas Denny that was televised on the HDNet network.
Miletich holds a third-degree black belt in Shuri-ryu karate. He has also trained with Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Sergio Monteiro and was awarded his BJJ black belt by Oswaldo Alves.
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