How much more does Jim Miller have left in him

One thing everyone can agree on is the UFC's lightweight division is no cakewalk. It's a pool of dangerous sharks. In that pool swims a stingray in Jim Miller with an impressive 31-14-1 record.

Jim Miller has been fighting since 2005. He's prepping for his 35th UFC fight. That's a lot of mileage on just a 5'8" frame. The feisty New Jersey native's 19 wins at lightweight sit atop the division. Out of his 17 submission wins, 9 are in the UFC, another category he leads in. Thus his skills on the mat are relentless whether it be chain wrestling or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has ridden the high of a 7 fight win streak and the low of a 4 fight skid.

But how much more does he have left in him? He along with his brother Dan run the MillerBrothersMMA academy. Is it a big powerhouse gym? No, but it is a gym of hard knocks. (Not to be confused with HardKnocks365). One fight that Jim admittedly wishes he could get is one that fell out 5 years ago, against Paul Felder. At this point in "The Irish Dragon's" career that might not be a good one to take. Paul's on the edge of title talk. For all that he's put in Jim doesn't have a number next to his name.

Miller will one day become a UFC Hall of Famer. He's as gritty as they come. But he may also be on the list of some of the best to never taste UFC gold. Saturday, he takes on Roosevelt Roberts; who's 10 years his junior. And it's a tough fight too. "The Predator" is 10-1 and loves to finish his opponents. It's a big step up though for Roberts who is on a modest 2 fight win streak. So Jim will need to call on all his in cage smarts to be working.

What happens afterwards for Jim? While it's never advised to count your chickens before they're hatched; he's at the cross roads now. When he gets beat, he doesn't tend to take massive damage that puts him on a 5-7 month medical suspension. And that's a good thing. Although he has seen his share of cage wars.

He could rattle some cages at 145, but it's unlikely there's another 10 pounds of water in him he could cut. Then again it was hard to picture Jose Aldo moving to 135. Just a catchweight fight against Dan Ige, Yair Rodriguez, or even champion Alexander Volkanovski would be interesting to watch. And there's no chance he would go up to welterweight. He could run it back with some fights he came up short on like against Beneil Dariush. Jim could be the mainstay as the lightweight gate keeper. Or possibly win, lose, or draw he could bring his active MMA career to a close Saturday night. And that might very well be the direction he takes.