Not even a week after HDNet Fights announced the lineup for its second event, there was a near disaster.
Salmon was scheduled to fight in Strikeforce just a few days after a conference call in which he discussed his HDNet bout against Miller. Asked if he was overlooking Miller by taking the Strikeforce fight, Salmon was supremely confident that he would win both matches.
Days later Salmon went from being an alternate for Strikeforce's four-man middleweight tournament to entering the main draw. He was then violently knocked out by Jorge Santiago (Pictures).
Salmon is now on a medical suspension, and HDNet Fights and Miller were both left holding the bag. It was the second time that Salmon had dropped out of an HDNet event due to conflicting fights, and he seems to have lost his relationship with the company.
"He's become unreliable for us," said Guy Mezger (Pictures), adding that Salmon was a good person making questionable decisions. "He told us he was fighting a different opponent, someone who I wasn't really fearful of him losing to, much less being knocked out."
HDNet Fights was forced to scramble and find a willing and suitable opponent for Miller. Thanks to a blossoming relationship with the International Fight League -- HDNet will be airing the IFL Grand Prix on Dec. 29 -- HDNet received a fighter on loan who just so happens to be one of the few names dotting Miller's short loss column: Tim Kennedy (Pictures).
Kennedy has recently resurfaced on the MMA scene, fighting a couple of times in the IFL and keeping his record pretty sterling at 8-1. His only loss came more than six years ago to TUF alumnus Scott Smith on a cut.
In February 2003, Kennedy won a decision over Miller on an Extreme Challenge show. "Mayhem" admitted that he was beaten "fair and square" that night, losing each round.
Now with a matchup that HDNet considers better than the original, the ominous has turned into the opportune. Kennedy gets a chance to fight someone who lives in the spotlight, and Miller has an opportunity to avenge a loss that has bothered him for years.
After Kennedy's win in 2003, the two fighters went very separate ways. Spurned on by his patriotism and the effect 9/11 had on him, Kennedy joined the Army and became a member of the Special Forces, putting a halt to his MMA career for several years.
Miller, on the other hand, didn't let the loss to Kennedy weigh him down much. Since that defeat, he has gone on to have a stellar career. He has beaten plenty of tough fighters while going 12-2 and becoming one of the most colorful characters in MMA.
The rematch won't be any easier for either fighter.
"Our first fight was extremely competitive, a knockdown, drag-out type fight, which was a blast," said Kennedy, who believes that his striking has improved greatly over the years. "You might be able to outbox me a little bit, but you definitely don't want to get hit by me."
Kennedy knows that "Mayhem" is hard to hit, and he won't be able to hurt Miller with knees like he did the first time around. He also believes that his time with the military has given him an extra edge mentally and has changed him as a fighter, husband and father.
"I'm a lot more mellow before the fights now," Kennedy said. "You know, this is fun to me. This is a blast. It's not a job; it's not something I have to worry about. I don't have to worry about a 7.62x3.9 round flying through the air and hitting me or one of my friends. I just get to walk out, hop in a ring and fight a guy with some gloves on, and it's a lot more fun than I remember it to be."
Miller knows he's become a more complete fighter over the years and credits his new training partners with helping him go the extra step.
"I have a group of beasts down at Team Quest that help me train," he said. "Like Dan Henderson (Pictures), Sokoudjou, along with Krzysztof that's on the card with me. It's disheartening sometimes. We got such a good amount of talent in the room that you go home and think, ‘Damn, will I ever win?' Because you get your ass kicked every day."
Kennedy was able to rough up Miller with knees from the top in the first bout. That method won't be legal this time, and Miller expects that neither he nor Kennedy will do much grappling.
Miller wants to beat Kennedy, but he also holds his opponent in high regard: "It's so great to have such a respect for somebody who my politics are totally different [than] and just two people from different backgrounds, two different styles of person going against each other."
The only two opponents to beat Miller since Kennedy has been Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) and, to bring things full circle, Frank Trigg (Pictures).
Trigg will meet Edwin Dewees (Pictures) in the other headliner on Saturday in Dallas. The winners of these two matches -- Miller-Kennedy and Trigg-Dewees -- should be on a collision course, perhaps meeting in February, to find out who is the top middleweight in HDNet Fights.