Footage surfaced recently of Rener Gracie having a competitive sparring match with MMA veteran Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller and submitting him with the lapel of his own gi. It’s unclear exactly when this sparring footage is dated from, but it is obviously from quite some time ago looking at how young both men appear to be. Both men are incredibly well-known in their respective circles of course, with Rener being one of the most popular figures in the BJJ world and Miller being one of the most well-respected MMA fighters from the early 2000s.
Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller started fighting professionally in 2001 and quickly won his first two fights and his first regional MMA title before the end of the year. He was handed his first loss in 2002 when he came up against another future popular fighter from that era, Chael Sonnen, at another regional MMA event. He continued perfecting his craft on smaller shows over the next two years and put together a 11-3 professional record that included another title and fights against other future big names in the sport like Tim Kennedy and Egan Inoue. That was when he was booked to make his UFC debut opposite one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport, Georges St-Pierre, while he was building up to his first welterweight title-reign.
Miller lost that fight and left the UFC to compete on smaller shows and other major promotions like Strikeforce, Dream, and WEC over the next 5 years of his career. This period included even more fights against legendary MMA fighters like Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, Kazushi Sakuraba, Jake Shields, and Robbie Lawler. With a 23-7 (1) professional record, Miller was given another chance to compete in the UFC in 2011 and dropped a pair of fights to Michael Bisping and CB Dolloway. He was cut from the UFC once again and returned to the sport for one final fight in 2016, before retiring for good with a professional record of 23-10 (1).
All in all, Miller became something of a cult figure in the MMA world and was regarded as one of the best fighters outside of the UFC during his prime. It’s unsurprising then to see that he spent his time training with grapplers like Rener Gracie and if it wasn’t for the use of the gi, it’s likely that this sparring match between Rener and Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller isn’t finished anywhere near as quickly.
The full footage of Rener Gracie having a sparring match with Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller and submitting him with the lapel of his own gi was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Riccardo ‘Baleia’ Ammendolia:
