Escudero vs. Miller Possible for UFC 103

Escudero has highly touted wrestling, as well as a solid grappling game.

During an exclusive chat on his website, UFC 8 lightweight winner Efrain Escudero (11-0) more or less announced that this first fight back from his injury will be a bout with Cole Miller (15-3) at UFC 103. While UFC 103 has no location at this point, the Escudero vs. Miller bout is an interesting consideration.

Miller is coming off of a first round submission victory over enigma Junie Browning, who Escudero also defeated during his stint on TUF 8. While both are solid grapplers, Miller is an enormous 155, with a reach advantage on just about anyone the division has to offer, as well as what may be the best camp in the world, American Top Team (with its colony of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelts and muay thai trainers).

Escudero has been called a wrestler on a few occasions, but the truth of the matter is he has solid submission skills on top of the wrestling background. As a smart wrestler should, Efrain has worked hard to develop the chokes that you learn setups for in wrestling (like the darse and guillotine, which emerge smoothly off of the front headlock position). His grappling game was touted heavily by Nogueira, his TUF 8 coach, and was put on display in all of his bouts in the show (especially his win in the finals over Phillipe Nover).

Only two fighters have lost the bout immediately following winning the TUF tournament, those being Travis Lutter (defeated by Anderson Silva, though TUF 4 was an anomaly, in throwing the fighters straight into title shots) and Joe Stevenson (who dropped a decision to Josh Neer). There is undoubtedly a lot of pressure on Efrain not to join Stevenson and Lutter in that respect, but after an injury, it’s hard to read how he will fair.

Miller is certainly going to be a tough test for Escudero, who hasn’t really had to deal with that level of a guard game, and hasn’t had to deal with that kind of reach advantage. If he can get in close and control the pace on the mat, then Escudero may be in good shape, but Miller is perpetually dangerous, capable of landing upkicks and submissions with his long legs (see the Jorge Gurgel fight), as well as doing damage on the feet (ask Andy Wang).

That said, Miller isn’t unbeatable, and the last really solid wrestler that Miller faced (Jeremy Stephens, who Escudero was originally set to fight before suffering the rib injury) smashed him. I’m not convinced that Escudero has the same level of explosiveness that Stephens does, but I do think he’s more technical a grappler.

This should make for an interesting bout between two solid lightweights with big futures in the sport. The winner, I think, will do a great deal to establish his legitimacy in a tough division, and the other will probably take a step back down to the undercard for a fight or two, so there’s definitely pressure there.