Pat Miletich

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 UFC and Other Notable Bouts
4 IFL and Return to Fighting
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Pat "The Croatian Sensation" Miletich (born March 9, 1966) is an American professional mixed martial artist and highly regarded MMA coach heading up Miletich Martial Arts.

He stands 5 ft. 10 in. (178 cm) tall and fights in the welterweight division (170 lbs.).

Miletich was the first ever UFC welterweight (then known as lightweight) champion and currently fights for Strikeforce.

Early Career

Pat Miletich made his professional mixed martial arts debut on October 28, 1995 for the Battle of the Masters promotion as part of a one night, eight man tournament. He met Yasunori Matsumoto in his debut and submitted his Japanese opponent in 7:45 with a rear naked choke.

Miletich wrapped up the tournament with two more rear naked chokes in a combined total of just over five minutes.

In 1996, Miletich kept the impressive start to his career going as he claimed two tournaments to open the year which improved his record to an unbeaten 8-0. He ended the year with four more stoppage victories that culminated in his debut for the Extreme Challenge promotion.

After three victories to open the year, Miletich suffered the first defeat of his professional career as he was stopped on a broken nose by Matt Hume in five minutes of their bout.

Miletich got back on track with a rear naked choke victory over Chuck Kim in June of 1997.

In his last two bouts for 1997, Miletich fought two epic battles with future UFC and PRIDE competitor, Chris Brennan. The first was judged a draw after 20 minutes and the second was a decision victory for Miletich after half an hour.

UFC and Other Notable Bouts

With his 17-1-1 record, Miletich earned a spot in UFC 16's lightweight (170 lbs.) tournament. He faced off against Townsend Saunders in the opening round and after 15 minutes was judged the split decision victor.

Miletich was supposed to face future TUF 4 contestant, Mikey Burnett in the final but a broken finger forced Burnett out and Miletich instead met alternate, Chris Brennan in the final. The third bout between the two saw a more definitive finish as Miletich claimed the tournament by choking Brennan out in 9:46 of the fight.

After picking up a submission win over Al Buck Jr. in his next bout, Miletich met UFC 5 heavyweight tournament champion, Dan Severn. Although he was outweighed by close to 100 lbs. Miletich forced the fight to a draw after twenty minutes.

Miletich returned to the UFC at Ultimate Brazil in October of 1998 where he met Mikey Burnett for the UFC's lightweight (170 lbs.) championship. After 21 minutes of next to no action, Miletich was announced the the first UFC lightweight champion.

Three months later at UFC 18, Miletich defended his title for the first time as he scored a decision victory over Jorge Patino after 21 minutes.

Miletich headed outside the UFC for his next bout as he headed to Hawaii to face Jutaro Nakao at SuperBrawl 11. Miletich suffered his first loss in almost two years as he was choked unconscious with a triangle choke in 9:22 of round 1.

A 40 second triangle choke of his own followed before Miletich returned to the UFC at UFC 21 to defend his title against Andre Pederneiras. In what had become his trademark, Miletich slowly and methodically grinded out his opponent before finally having him stopped in the second round via cut.

Heading outside of the UFC again, Miletich scored a unanimous decision win over Shonie Carter at Extreme Challenge 27 before suffering his third professional defeat when he was stopped by Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons in January of 2000.

Miletich got back on track at UFC 26 where he successfully defended his title for the third time as he submitted UFC debutant, John Alessio with an armbar in the second round.

A little over two months later, Miletich headed over to Japan where he met Japanese fan favorite, Kiyoshi Tamura and was defeated via majority decision after two rounds.

Back in the UFC, Miletich met Kenichi Yamamoto in December of 2000 at UFC 29. In his fourth successive title defense, Miletich submitted Yamamoto with a guillotine choke in the second round.

At UFC 31, Miletich faced off against Carlos Newton in his fifth defense. Success was not to be had however as the talented Newton caught him in a bulldog choke in the third round forcing him to submi giving Newton the title.

Miletich bounced back from the title loss in his next bout at UFC 32 when he defeated Shonie Carter in a rematch by head kick in the second round.

With student, Matt Hughes now owning the welterweight title, Miletich decided to jump up a weight class to the middleweight division where he faced 2000 Olympic Silver Medalist in Greco Roman wrestling, Matt Lindland at UFC 36. The size disadvantage Miletich now experienced showed as he was stopped with punches in 3:09 of round 1.

IFL and Return to Fighting

Miletich decided to take some years off from fighting following the Lindland loss in order to rehab some injuries. In 2006, Miletich was scheduled to coach The Ultimate Fighter 3 opposite Carlos Newton. However, a last minute change meant Miletich and Newton were passed over in favor for Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock.

Upset with the UFC's decision, Miletich severed ties with the organization and took up a coaching role with upstart promotion, the International Fight League. As coach of the Quad City Silverbacks he led his team to the first IFL team championship at the end of 2006.

Miletich returned to professional competition at an IFL event in Illinois as he faced off against Renzo Gracie. His return was not a successful one as he was caught in a flying guillotine choke in 3:37 of round 1.

Another two years off from fighting followed before Miletich returned again at Adrenaline MMA 2 in December of 2008. He met EliteXC veteran, Thomas Denny and picked up his first victory since June of 2001 as he knocked Denny cold with punches 50 seconds into round 2.