One to Watch: Anthony Pettis vs. Jim Miller

With many countries such as the USA and Canada celebrating independence in July, the month is poignant for many people across the globe. July also holds importance in MMA's calendar as the UFC hosts its annual International Fight Week in the fight capital of the world, Las Vegas, this time of year on an annual basis.

With The Ultimate Fighter season 25 finale serving as an appetiser on Friday night, the UFC celebrate its International Fight Week festivities with the main course that is UFC 213 on Saturday inside the glistening T-Mobile Arena. While everyone's talking about UFC 214 and its three title fights, UFC 213's fight card packs plenty of punch itself with a women's bantamweight title bout between champion Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, while the middleweight interim title fight contest featuring Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker is the support act.

The card is littered with good fights throughout. Travis Browne vs. Oleksiy Oliynyk is a fun heavyweight match-up rounding off the preliminary portion of fights, while the heavyweight bout between Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem—a rubber match—is only the second fight into UFC 213's main card while featuring two of the division's stars. With three potential headline-stealing heavyweight contests on the card and two title fights, it's no wonder why Anthony Pettis' return to the lightweight division against Jim Miller has fallen under the radar.

It's been seven months since we last saw former WEC and UFC lightweight champion Pettis grace the Octagon. The Milwaukee native's last appearance in the cage was against Max Holloway in a fight which was originally for the interim featherweight title, though Pettis missed weight ahead of the fight so he wasn't eligible to become champion should he have beaten Holloway anyway. As it turned out, Holloway dispatched Pettis inside three rounds with a body kick followed up by a series of punches to earn the belt and signal the end of Pettis' adventure at 145lbs.

After his failed weight cut and subsequent loss to Holloway, Pettis moves back up to the lightweight limit of 155lbs of which he was once king. Pettis endured a dramatic fall from grace after snatching Benson Henderson's championship from his grasp and later defending his belt against former Strikeforce titleholder Gilbert Melendez. Thanks to his good looks and aesthetically-pleasing fighting style, Pettis was among the UFC's most marketable fighters, getting his face plastered on the Wheaties cereal box and being one of the few UFC athletes to secure a sponsorship deal with Reebok.

By the time his Wheaties box hit the shelves of American supermarkets in early 2015, Pettis had already lost his lightweight championship to Rafael dos Anjos in a gruelling five-round smothering on the feet and on the ground. Pettis then went on to lose consecutive decisions to Eddie Alvarez and Edson Barboza, before retreating to the weight class below and somewhat resuscitating his career with a guillotine choke win against Charles Oliveira at featherweight before losing to Holloway.

With his return to lightweight, Pettis' career has gone full circle and is looking to revive his aspirations against tough, perennial gatekeeper Miller on Saturday.

New Jersey native Miller is the perfect test to see if Pettis can return to form. Miller is a 26-fight veteran of the UFC and hasn't endured being cut from the roster in his nine years fighting under the promotion. Miller has a record of 17 wins, eight losses and a No Contest during his time in the UFC, and has fought top-tier lightweight talents such as the Benson Henderson, Donald Cerrone, Nate Diaz, Gray Maynard, Michael Chiesa, Dustin Poirier, Thiago Alves, Joe Lauzon, Beneil Dariush, and more.

Like many other fighters who find themselves in similar positions as a divisional gatekeeper as Miller, he has long been considered in the mix for title contention but would often come unstuck against fighters at contendership level. Miller's last fight against Poirier, which resulted in a majority decision loss, led to his opponent fighting the recently-dethroned lightweight king Eddie Alvarez—a resulting match-up emblematic of the way Miller has been used as a springboard in the lightweight rankings. Before that loss, Miller had done well to overcome a 1-4 skid and personal health issues beset by lyme disease with three consecutive wins, but, ultimately, Miller's unfancied run back up the rankings was brought to an abrupt halt by the aforementioned Poirier.

Pettis was particularly keen for this contest, given Miller's penchant for fun fights and position as a custodian of the lightweight division. UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby said on Watch List [H/T MMAjunkie]: "All fighters go through this at some point in their career. I think [Pettis] came to a patch where he was experimenting, going down to '45. I think he found out that the weight cut had diminishing returns for him. He's back up at '55, and he's the one who really wanted this fight. He called me and was really pushing for it."

"You know Jim Miller. I mean, Jim Miller doesn't give an 'F.' He's a guy that will fight anybody, any day of the week. You don't even have to call him, and he'll show up, and he was down for this fight—and on paper, it's a really fun fight."

Fun fights on paper don't always translate well to the Octagon. However, given Pettis' dynamic fighting style and Miller's well-rounded grittiness, this fight appears to be a sure-fire Fight of the Night candidate you won't want to miss.