Fighter nicknames can often veer wildly between bizarre and terrifying. The UFC has recently been graced by the likes of Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman, Luis “Violent Bob Ross” Pena, and Colby “Chaos” Covington, whose suffocating wrestling style is one of the least chaotic in the sport. Julianna Miller, winner of The Ultimate Fighter 30, used to go by the nickname “Attempted Killer Miller”, which raised a few eyebrows, and explained the origins of the moniker on The MMA Hour.
Miller alluded to an incident with an abusive ex-partner, relaying a conversation with her coach. “He heard about some legal trouble I was in, and he said, ‘Hey, did you really try to do that to that guy?’
TUF 30 Winner Julianna Miller Explains the origin of her “Attempted Killer” Nickname
I said, ‘Absolutely, and I would try to kill him again.’ He said, ‘Oh, you’re going to be a world champion, and your nickname is, ‘Attempted Killer Miller.’
As I went pro, people kept asking me, ‘Who’d you try to kill,’ and I was like, ‘Mmm, eff that person,’ so now I’m just a killer, and all of that is history.”
Miller continued, describing her mentality in the Octagon and an incident that led her to pursue an MMA career. “If we’re in a cage, I’m going to try to kill you.
If it’s kill or be killed, I’m going to go for it. I’m the kind of person where if there’s a bear in my face, I’m not going to turn and run and let the bear and grab me in the back and bite my head off. I would rather stand up to this bear, face-to-face, and say ‘bring it,’ and shoot my shot and go for it as opposed to kind of running away.
I do not live my life in fear, so they’re like, ‘Oh, careful with her, she’ll try to kill you.’ So in my amateur career, I was the ‘attempted killer,’ and upon being 90 percent finishes, my coaches were like, ‘Yeah, you’re the killer now.’”
Miller claims she was depressed and going nowhere until a violent incident changed her perspective forever. “I was not in a good relationship and there was an altercation, and I just didn’t know how to defend myself, period.
There was definitely in that time, we were all just little raver kids, and we were drinking, people were under the influence, and as many people know, most of domestic violence situations comes from somebody that you know — obviously, it’s personal. And most of the time, it’s because of chemicals; people are not acting themselves because they’re drunk, they’re blacked out, whatever.
So it was just my first-ever altercation, I did not defend myself, and I remember I was like, ‘Nobody’s ever going to touch me like this again.’”
